Ancient humans may have worn shoes more than 100,000 years ago

Humans might have been sporting sneakers for properly over 100,000 years, and different hominins like Neanderthals might also have worn footwear. The suggestion stems from the invention of bizarre preserved footprints in South Africa, which can have been made by individuals sporting sandals.

“We’re not claiming we have conclusive evidence of this,” says Charles Helm at Nelson Mandela University in Gqeberha, South Africa. Instead, Helm and his colleagues wish to work out the way to reliably distinguish footprints left by naked …