Five footprints from human feet, calculated to be between 4,500 and 25,000 years old, were discovered in the Sierra Tarahumara, in Chihuahua. Specialists said that the foot prints could belong to the first men who lived in this region that is today known as northern Mexico.

Specialists from INAH discovered in the Tarahumara Sierra five footprints made by humans some 25,000 years ago [Credit: José Concepción Jiménez/INAH]

These are the first human footprints that have been found in Chihuahua and once their age has been found out, they will be added to the few footprints from the first people that lived in the American continent that are preserved in Mexico, particularly in Cuatro Ciénegas, Coahuila and in a ranch in Sonora.

The footprints correspond to three adults and a child that probably lived in the caves that are located in the sierra, in the Valle de Ahuatos, eight kilometers from the town of Creel, in Chihuahua.

According to morphoscopic analysis, footprint 1, by its longitude of 26 centimeters, corresponds to the right foot of a male adult, while footprint number 2 belongs to the left foot of another adult, but it being the less defined it has been difficult to identify the sex of the person that made it. Footprint number 3 was made by an infant 3 or 4 years old and corresponds to the right foot with a longitude of 17 centimeters.

Cave wall paintings feature circles and lines [Credit: José Concepción Jiménez/INAH]

Footprints 4 and 5 are from another adult and represent the only pair that corresponds to the same person, which was found two meters away from footprint 1; the fohe left foot print (footprint 4) has a longitude of 23.7 centimeters, while the right (footprint 5) measures 24.5 centimeters, these footprints are significant as they have six toes, which may be due a malformation.

Anthropologist José Concepción Jiménez said that the finding of the human footprints was made by an email that a citizen from Chihuahua sent to the Seminario del Hombre Temprano in Mexico, telling about the existence of ancient human fooprints in the Valle de Ahuatos, in the municipality of Bocoyna.