The oldest known pre-human footprints, discovered on the island of Crete in 2002, have been dated as being 6.05 million years old, about 350,000 years older than originally estimated, according to a scientific study published in the Nature journal’s Scientific Reports.

The fossil footprints were found on the seashore in the village of Trachilos in western Crete. 

Researchers from Germany, Greece, Sweden, the UK and Egypt led by Uwe Kirscher and Madelaine Bohme of the Senckenberg Center for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment at the University of Tubingen concluded that the footprints are the oldest direct evidence of a human-like foot used for walking.

This article was previously published at ekathimerini.com.