Fossilized footprints in Kenya reveal early human ancestors shared space

A remarkable discovery of fossilized footprints in Kenya offers new insight into the behavior of two early human species that lived around 1.5 million years ago. 

Muddy footprints found on the shores of a Kenyan lake provide evidence that two early human ancestors were living in close proximity approximately 1.5 million years ago, Caliber.Az reports per foreign media.

The footprints were left in the mud by two distinct species “within a matter of hours, or at most days,” explained paleontologist Louise Leakey, co-author of the study published in Science.

While scientists already knew from fossilized remains that Homo erectus and Paranthropus boisei existed around the same time in the Turkana Basin, dating fossils is not an exact science. “It’s plus or minus a few thousand years,” said William Harcourt-Smith, a paleontologist at Lehman College and the American Museum of Natural History in New York, who was not involved in the research.

However, with fossilized footprints, “there’s an actual moment in time preserved,” he remarked. “It’s an amazing discovery.”

The fossilized footprints were discovered in 2021 in what is now Koobi Fora, Kenya, according to Leakey, who is affiliated with Stony Brook University in New York.

Whether the two individuals walked by the eastern shore of Lake Turkana simultaneously or a day or two apart, it’s likely they were aware of each other’s presence, said study co-author Kevin Hatala, a paleoanthropologist at Chatham University in Pittsburgh.

“They likely saw each other, probably knew the other was nearby, and most likely influenced each other in some way,” he said.

Scientists could differentiate between the two species by analyzing the shape of the footprints, which reveal clues about foot anatomy and how they were being used.

H. erectus seemed to walk much like modern humans – landing heel first, rolling weight across the ball of the foot and toes, and then pushing off again.

The other species, while also walking upright, moved “in a way unlike anything else we’ve observed anywhere else,” said co-author Erin Marie Williams-Hatala, a human evolutionary anatomist at Chatham.

By Naila Huseynova