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The close range of the prints suggests that the two species walked through the same lakeshore area within hours or days of each other.
Discovery offers a rare glimpse into the life of early humans. (Photo Credits: Freepik)
Two ancient hominin species once coexisted in what’s now Kenya, researchers have found. Published in Science magazine, the finding is based on the analysis of 1.5 million-year-old footprints uncovered at the Koobi Fora site in the East Turkana Area of Kenya. The footprints were discovered in July 2021 and belonged to two individuals from different species – Homo erectus and Paranthropus boisei. The close range of the prints suggests that the two species walked through the same lakeshore area within hours or days of each other.
“This is the first snapshot we have of those two species living on the same immediate landscape, potentially interacting with one another,” says study co-author Kevin Hatala, a palaeoanthropologist at Chatham University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
The mud-preserved footprints offer a rare and valuable glimpse into the lives of ancient humans. They reveal intricate details about the individuals, such as the height of their foot arches, the shape of their toes, and their distinct walking patterns.
“It really is a snapshot in time,” says Tracy Kivell, a palaeoanthropologist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany.
The discovery offers significant details for our understanding of human evolution. Previous studies had suggested that different hominin species lived alongside each other, but this finding provides direct evidence of their coexistence.
“These fossilised footprints are as close as we are going to get to having a time machine to take us back to an eastern African lakeshore 1.5 million years ago,” says Bernard Wood, a palaeoanthropologist at George Washington University in Washington DC.
The study’s findings are based on a detailed analysis of the footprints, which included the use of 3D X-ray-based imaging techniques. The researchers compared the footprints to those of modern humans and found significant differences in the shape and structure of the feet.
The discovery of the footprints has also offered valuable insights into the environment and ecosystem of the region 1.5 million years ago. Along with the hominin tracks, the site contained footprints from 30 relatives of cattle, three horse-like animals, and 61 bird species, including the now-extinct giant stork, Leptoptilos falconeri.
Kevin Hatala hopes to combine data from both footprints and bone fossils to gain a clearer picture of life during this phase of human evolution. Future studies may also focus on the animals and birds, adding more context to the environment of early hominins. Bernard Wood says, “That just brings the whole thing alive in a way that, with regular fossil evidence, it’s difficult to do.”
