A massive set of ancient human footprints have been found close to Engare Sero in Tanzania. The footprints are believed to be between 5,000 and 19,000 years old.

The set of over 400 footprints are concentrated in an area the size of a tennis court. This is one of the biggest cluster of well-preserved footprints ever found in entire Africa. 

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The mudflat of Engare Sero is located on the southern shore of Lake Natron. According to National Geographic, the footprints indicates that some people jogged through the area. Analysis shows that they may have been walking at a speed of more than 12 minutes a mile. Some footprints show the presence of a person with possibly broken toe.

Several other prints suggest the possibility of a group of about a dozen people crossing the flats. The group seemed to have more women than men. It also included children. The track was excavated with the support of the National Geographic Society's Committee for Research and Exploration.

Engare Sero is approximately 60 miles away from Laetoli site, where 3.6 million years old footprints were found. These footprints were possibly made by human ancestor Australopithecus afarensis.

The Engare Sero site is close to  7650 foot tall Ol Doinyo Lengai volcano. The volcano is considered sacred by pastoralist Maasai. The research team believes that the mud containing the footprints probably washed off the flanks of the volcano, down to the mudflats.

Briana Pobiner of the Smithsonian Human Origins Program said that such dense collection footprints allow for the direct investigation of "social aspects of the lives of these ancient humans."