Archaeology: Neanderthals wore Jesus Creepers 40,000 years ago

OPINION

I'd have thought it would have been common sense that they'd wear some kind of footwear. If they were chopping brambles and nettles down, to make way for homes and land, it probably would have been one of the first things they did. 

I doubt 'killer heels' would have been very practical though for the neanderthal woman so they'd have to make do with jesus creepers like the men.

The source comes from National Geographic news:-

According to National Geographic today, humans were wearing shoes at least 10,000 years earlier than previously thought, according to a new study.

The evidence comes from a 40,000-year-old human fossil with delicate toe bones indicative of habitual shoe-wearing, experts say.

 A previous study of anatomical changes in toe bone structure had dated the use of shoes to about 30,000 years ago.

Now the dainty-toed fossil from China suggests that at least some humans were sporting protective footwear 10,000 years further back, during a time when both modern humans and Neandertals occupied portions of Europe and Asia.

Erik Trinkaus, a paleoanthropologist at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, said the scarcity of toe bone fossils makes it hard to determine when habitual shoe-wearing became widespread.

However, he noted, even Neandertals may have been strapping on sandals.

"Earlier humans, including Neanderthals, show [some] evidence of occasionally wearing shoes," Trinkaus said.

Regular shoe use may have become common by 40,000 years ago, but "we still have no [additional] evidence from that time period—one way or the other," the scientist said