Hi Chris,
You have vastly misrepresented the evidence, and Safarti, a physicist, has badly misrepresented it as well. Not out of malice, but out of lack of expertise and lack of careful consideration of the peer-reviewed research.
For example, Safarti asserts the following about the Laetoli prints:
Dr Russell Tuttle has shown that these are the same sorts of prints as made by habitually barefoot humans.
Nothing of the sort! Tuttle said the prints are “very similar to” modern human footprints. He did not say they are “identical to” modern human footprints. The difference is very, very important.
Much research has shown that the Laetoli prints were made by A. Afarensis, whose bio-mechanics are distinguishable from those of modern humans. Consider, for example, the peer-reviewed research by Hatala, et al. (2016):
We find that the Laetoli hominin probably used a more flexed limb posture at foot strike than modern humans when walking bipedally. The Laetoli footprints provide a clear snapshot of an early hominin bipedal gait that probably involved a limb posture that was slightly but significantly different from our own, and these data support the hypothesis that important evolutionary changes to hominin bipedalism occurred within the past 3.66 Myr. [emphasis added]
Our friend @pevaquark cited this paper to you 25 days ago. Chris, please consider carefully: How is it that you grossly misrepresent the Laetoli footprints so soon after @Pevaquark presented this peer-reviewed research to you?
For the sake of readers who are inquisitive enough to delve into the actual research being done by anthropologists, I cite another key study of Laetoli footprint bio-mechanics–Crompton, et al. (2012):
Pixel-wise topographical statistical analysis of Laetoli footprint morphology, compared with results from experimental studies of footprint formation; foot-pressure measurements in bipedalism of humans and non-human great apes; and computer simulation techniques, indicate that most of these functional features were already present, albeit less strongly expressed than in ourselves, in the maker of the Laetoli G-1 footprint trail, 3.66 Mya. [emphasis added]
Since you seem to have no interest in reading the papers that have been cited to you, nor in addressing the points made by @pevaquark and me, I do not see how we can have a meaningful conversation on this subject, Chris. So I conclude by bidding you Godspeed in all your endeavors. May you and yours enjoy great blessings in every way.
Best,
Chris
P.S. The fact that the original discoverer had no expertise in hominin gait bio-mechanics is utterly irrelevant. It is no more relevant than Darwin’s ignorance of DNA. A lot of good peer-reviewed research has since been conducted and published on the Laetoli discoveries. Rather than snipe at the relative ignorance of the original discoverer, wouldn’t it be better and more noble to take on the hard but enjoyable work of reading the peer-reviewed research that has been conducted since?