[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8] The three footprints were found in 1995 by geologist David Roberts from the Council for Geoscience and announced at a press conference with paleoanthropologist Lee R. Berger of the University of the Witwatersrand at Johannesburg, South Africa, at the National Geographic Society in Washington, D.C.

The location where they were found is in southwest South Africa about 120 kilometres (75 mi) northwest of Cape Town in the West Coast National Park.

The preserved prints were moved to the South African Museum in Cape Town for protection and a concrete replica was mounted on the shores of Langebaan.

[3] The maker of the footprints lived in the time of the emergence of modern Homo sapiens, or people anatomically similar to humans alive today.

[4] The team later found associated evidence of stone tool use (a core, scrapers, cutting blades, and a spear point) in the same area that is believed to date from the same period.