CRETE – Scientists have discovered human-like footprints in Crete that, according to evolutionists, predate the origin of modern humans by more than one million years.

According to evolutionary scientists, the ancestry of modern humans can be traced back to the 4.4-million-year-old Ardipithecus ramidus—an ape-like species that lived in Africa. Ardipithecus ramidus had ape-like feet, but evolutionists believe its descendants eventually learned to walk upright, leading to the development of bipedal humans.

However, the recent discovery of ancient footprints on a European island calls the premise into question.

“Newly discovered human-like footprints from Crete may put the established narrative of early human evolution to the test,” reported Phys.org. “The footprints are approximately 5.7 million years old and were made at a time when previous research puts our ancestors in Africa—with ape-like feet.”

A team of international researchers dated the footprints by analyzing nearby marine fossils and sedimentary rock. They say they are confident in the assigned age of the prints, even though it does not match with evolutionary predictions.

“The new footprints, from Trachilos in western Crete, have an unmistakably human-like form,” the website explained. “This is especially true of the toes. The big toe is similar to our own in shape, size and position; it is also associated with a distinct ‘ball’ on the sole, which is never present in apes.”

The discovery of the footprints in Crete was recently detailed in Proceedings of the Geologists’ Association. Scientists say this finding challenges the evolutionary timeline and overthrows assumptions about modern humans originating in Africa.

“What makes this controversial is the age and location of the prints,” said Professor Per Ahlberg of Uppsala University, who was one of the authors of the study.

“This discovery challenges the established narrative of early human evolution head-on and is likely to generate a lot of debate,” he added. “Whether the human origins research community will accept fossil footprints as conclusive evidence of the presence of hominins in the Miocene of Crete remains to be seen.”

Dr. Andrew Snelling, a geologist with Answers in Genesis, told Christian News Network that the discovery of these human-like footprints in Crete is not the first time a discovery of ancient footprints has put evolutionists in a bind.

“The famous Laetoli fossilized footprints in Tanzania referred to in this paper are far more like human footprints than these in Crete, and have even been described as human,” he said. “But they have been attributed to the kin of the australopithecine ‘Lucy,’ because according to evolutionary theory, humans weren’t around when the australopithecines walked the earth.”

“These [footprints] in Crete are regarded by evolutionary dating methods as even older, and so are similarly ascribed to ‘possible hominin’ rather than human, and would be no matter how human they looked for the same reason,” he added.

From a biblical perspective, Snelling believes that the ancient footprints in Crete were laid down following the Great Flood described in Genesis.

“From a biblical perspective of earth history, no matter who made these fossilized footprints, whether humans or apes, they were probably made after the Flood, when humans were walking the earth with apes, some of which later went extinct,” he stated.

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