Discovery of Happisburgh Footprints

Date: February 7, 2014 • Location: Stalham, United Kingdom

Researchers announced the discovery of the Happisburgh footprints in Norfolk, England, the oldest known hominid footprints outside Africa, at more than 800,000 years old.

The Happisburgh footprints were a set of fossilized hominid footprints that date to the end of the Early Pleistocene, around 850–950,000 years ago. They were discovered in May 2013 in a newly uncovered sediment layer of the Cromer Forest Bed on a beach at Happisburgh in Norfolk, England, and carefully photographed in 3D before being destroyed by the tide shortly afterwards.