Footprint evidence for locomotor diversity and shared habitats among early Pleistocene hominins
For much of the Pliocene and Pleistocene, multiple hominin species coexisted in the same regions of eastern and southern Africa. Due to the limitations of the skeletal fossil record, questions regarding their interspecific interactions remain unanswered. We report the discovery of footprints (~1.5 million years old) from Koobi Fora, Kenya, that provide the first evidence of two different patterns of Pleistocene hominin bipedalism appearing on the same footprint surface. New analyses show that this is observed repeatedly across multiple contemporaneous sites in the eastern Turkana Basin. These data indicate a sympatric relationship between Homo erectus and Paranthropus boisei, suggesting that lake margin habitats were important to both species and highlighting the possible influence of varying levels of coexistence, competition, and niche partitioning in human evolution. It is now well accepted that hominin evolution is a story of many lineages existing contemporaneously. Evidence for this pattern has mostly come from fossils being dated to similar time periods. Hatala et al. describe hominid footprints from 1.5 million years ago in the Turkana Basin in Kenya that were made by two different species within hours or days of each other (see the Perspective by Harcourt-Smith). Analyses showed that the footprints were made by individuals with different gaits and stances, and the authors hypothesize these to be Homo erectus and Paranthropus boilei. Although fossils of both species occur in the area, these footprints show that they coexisted and likely interacted. ?Sacha VignieriFor much of the Pliocene and Pleistocene, multiple hominin species coexisted in the same regions of eastern and southern Africa. Due to the limitations of the skeletal fossil record, questions regarding their interspecific interactions remain unanswered. We report the discovery of footprints (~1.5 million years old) from Koobi Fora, Kenya, that provide the first evidence of two different patterns of Pleistocene hominin bipedalism appearing on the same footprint surface. New analyses show that this is observed repeatedly across multiple contemporaneous sites in the eastern Turkana Basin. These data indicate a sympatric relationship between Homo erectus and Paranthropus boisei, suggesting that lake margin habitats were important to both species and highlighting the possible influence of varying levels of coexistence, competition, and niche partitioning in human evolution. It is now well accepted that hominin evolution is a story of many lineages existing contemporaneously. Evidence for this pattern has mostly come from fossils being dated to similar time periods. Hatala et al. describe hominid footprints from 1.5 million years ago in the Turkana Basin in Kenya that were made by two different species within hours or days of each other (see the Perspective by Harcourt-Smith). Analyses showed that the footprints were made by individuals with different gaits and stances, and the authors hypothesize these to be Homo erectus and Paranthropus boilei. Although fossils of both species occur in the area, these footprints show that they coexisted and likely interacted. ?Sacha Vignieri
doi: 10.1126/science.ado5275
