A groundbreaking study published in Science has uncovered fossilized footprints of two archaic human species, Homo erectus and Paranthropus boisei, which lived in the same eastern African lake area around 1.5 million years ago. The analysis suggests that these individuals walked through the lake’s shores within hours or days of each other.
According to Kevin Hatala, a palaeoanthropologist at Chatham University, this finding provides the first direct evidence of different archaic hominin species coexisting in the same place. The study preserved details about the footprints, including the height of their foot arches, toe shape, and walking patterns.
“This is a snapshot in time,” says Tracy Kivell, a palaeoanthropologist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. The discovery is considered a significant find, offering a rare glimpse into the lives of our ancient ancestors.
The study’s lead researcher notes that the fossilized footprints are as close as we can get to having a time machine, allowing us to explore what life was like on an eastern African lake shore 1.5 million years ago.
Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-03907-z