Ancient footprints show prehistoric humans had bunions
Joe Pinkstone - 

prehistoric footprint© Provided by The Telegraph

Ancient footprints found in mud reveal prehistoric humans had bunions caused by not wearing any shoes, scientists have found.

Human footprints, as well as myriad animal imprints, have been found at Formby in the north-west, on the Irish Sea coast, as well as other sites on Britain’s coastline.

The collection at Formy ranges from around 9,000 to 1,000 years ago and one of the new findings is that of an adolescent male who lived around 8,500 years ago.

An immaculately preserved footprint revealed he had a protrusion on the outside of his foot, next to his little toe.

“It’s a tailor’s bunion,” Dr Alison Burns from the University of Manchester, told the BBC.

“They were habitually barefoot, so when they sat down, the little toe would have rubbed on the ground.”

Dr Burns led a study, published in Nature Ecology and Evolution, which looked at how these snapshots of history reveal Britain's changing landscape over millennia.

Shrinking habitat

Before 6,000 years ago, the country was home to a vast range of species including lynx, aurochs, beavers, wolves, roe deer, red deer and boar, all found in the records at Formby.

But the study found that around 5,500 years ago the diverse number of species was supplanted by a more sanitised population list, consisting of just humans, dogs and a smattering of red deer.

The transition more than five millennia ago occurred at the same time that Doggerland in the North Sea was being submerged below surging sea levels, and the British population was mastering farming.

“After 5,500 years, human footprints dominate the Neolithic period and later beds, alongside a striking fall in large mammal species richness,” the scientists write in their paper.

The researchers say the loss of diversity is possibly a result of a shrinking habitat following sea level rise, increased agriculture and human overhunting.

“The Formby record suggests that the decline in native large herbivores may have begun much earlier in the Holocene than previously thought,” the scientists add.