The footprints were made byHomo erectusandParanthropus boisei, long-extinct species that shared eastern Africa in the ancient past.
Together, the footprints are a remarkable window into the lives of our nearest relatives and ancestors.
The teams research waspublishedtoday inScience.
The overlapping hominin footprints on a surface near Lake Turkana.Image: Kevin Hatala/Chatham University
boiseidied out around 1.2 million years agoshortly after it made tracks on the ancient Kenyan lakeshore.
The prints were found in 2021 by a team organized by the paleontologist Louise Leakey.
A field team excavated the prints the following summer.
But for now, we believe it is most parsimonious to hypothesize that the footprints were made byH.
Both species were upright, bipedalthey walked on two legsand agile.
And of course, both made use of the ancient lakefront near the modern Lake Turkana.
The idea that they lived contemporaneously may not be a surprise.
But this is the first time demonstrating it.
As noted, the fact that these two species lived at the same time is not a huge surprise.
Additionally, there wasH. naledi,H.
heidelbergensis, and the yet-to-be-named hobbit species described earlier this year.
sapiensinterbred with both Neanderthals and Denisovans, as evidenced in our DNA.
Human Hobbit Fossils Surprise Scientists With Smaller and More Ancient Specimens
Evidence ofHomo erectusandP.
boiseicoexisting has turned up before;in 2020, a skull cap belonging to aH.
The study of Hatala et al.
But the recently studied fossil site is an amazing window into the history of our family tree.
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