Two types of early humans walked alongside each other 1.5 million years ago, fossils have shown.
Fossilized imprints from a lake in Kenya show that a member of Homo erectus and Paranthropus boisei walked through the same mud within hours of each other.
These two species are relatives of the ancestors of modern Homo sapiens and were common human species during the Pleistocene epoch.
Anthropologist Prof Craig Feibel has spent more than 40 years studying the rich lands in northern Kenya and found the footprints near Lake Turkana.
Analysis showed that the two animals passed each other at the same time, using the same area of the beach.
Scientists say that it is possible that two people existed at the same time and collided, or crossed a few minutes or hours apart.
Researchers unearthed the fossils in 2021 when a team led by Louise Leakey, a third-generation paleontologist, found fossil bones at the site.
A 3D computer model of a site near Lake Turkana in Kenya shows the fossil footprints of Paranthropus boisei (straight feet) and Homo erectus forming a unique path – Kevin Hatala / Chatham University, SWNS
It was unearthed in July 2022 and is the first-ever evidence of two hominin species existing at the same time.
“With these types of data, we can see how living people, millions of years ago, moved in their habitats and were able to communicate with each other, or even with other animals,” said Dr Kevin Hatala, first author of the study at Chatham University. in Pittsburgh.
“That’s something we can’t get from bones or stone tools.”
Both animals were able to walk on two feet and walked upright with a good degree of agility. Homo erectus is the ancestor of modern humans and lived until about 500,000 years ago while P. boisei became extinct a few thousand years after the confluence of the Kenyan lake.
Professor Chris Stringer, director of human evolution research at the Natural History Museum, who was not involved in the research, told The Telegraph, that: “We already know that these two species interacted for several hundreds of thousands of years in the same area from the fossils found there.
“But direct evidence of its existence is almost impossible to prove from fossils alone.”
One study previously found Homo sapiens and Neanderthal bones only meters apart, for example, but the study found that there was a gap of 30,000 years between them.
Paranthropus boisei was one of the most common species of humans during the Pleistocene epoch – ullstein bild
“These two species are hundreds of thousands of years old and must have come into contact many times,” Professor Stringer added.
“The authors suggest that these two species with different diets may not be competing with each other much at this time, hence their proximity and apparently tolerance in time and space.
“Paranthropus boisei became extinct shortly after the footfall, however, but it is not known whether this was due to environmental changes, competition from other (non-human) species, or whether Homo erectus may have been involved.
“There is evidence of violent death in the records of Neanderthals and H. sapiens, but in general, it seems to be within the conflict of races.”
The study was published in the journal Science and Professor Feibel said it “proves beyond any doubt” that two different hominins were traveling in the same place at the same time.
“The idea that they lived at the same time may not be surprising. But this is the first time I have shown it. I think it’s really big,” he said.
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