Mary Pappen Found Ancient Sprinter

In 2003, a young Aboriginal woman named Mary Pappen Jr. discovered ancient human footprints near the dried-up Willandra Lakes in New South Wales, Australia. Researchers later identified about 700 footprints, some made roughly 20,000 years ago by early Aboriginal people moving across soft clay near a wetland. One track appeared to show a hunter running at about 23 miles per hour or 37 kilometers per hour, close to the speed of a modern Olympic sprinter.

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