Walk the world and beyond: Hominin footprints

This chapter explores the application of ichnological methods and approaches to the hominin track record, under the realm of ichnoarcheology. Although ichnoarcheology deals with any bioturbation, bioerosion, and biodepositional structures produced during the evolution of hominins, the focus of this chapter is to make a reappraisal of the record of limb dynamics in interaction with natural and human-made substrates. An updated review of the hominin track record summarizes 115 ichnosites worldwide, an unprecedented number resulting from the burst of interest and applications in different areas of knowledge, including ichnology, archeology, anthropology, and paleobiology, during the last 2 decades. This review is organized through the major threshold events that definitely influenced hominin evolution, namely the bipedalism and dispersal worldwide; the use of limbs in interaction with natural and artificial substrates to deliberately create symbolic meanings and artistic expressions, or improving their biomechanical capabilities through the development of footwear; and finally, realizing that aerospace technology development in the latest decades is producing a human ichnological record beyond the Earth.