Muddy footprints found beside Lake Turkana, Kenya reveal two ancient hominin species were once neighbors 1.5 million years ago.

About 1.5 million years ago, individuals of two different species in the human evolutionary lineage trudged on a muddy lakeshore in northern Kenya, leaving behind intersecting trackways alongside the footprints of antelopes,

There’s plenty of evidence that ancient hominin species crossed paths on many occasions – but it’s never been quite as literal as a new discovery in Kenya. Paleontologists have discovered the first known example of fossil footprints left by two different species of ancient hominins on the same day.

The footprints were left in the mud by two different species “within a matter of hours, or at most days,” a co-author of the research study said.

Researchers discovered 1.5-million-year-old footprints in Kenya's Turkana Basin, revealing coexistence of Paranthropus boisei and Homo erectus. The prints, showing distinct walking patterns, provide direct evidence of the two species' interaction and environment,

Newly discovered fossil footprints indicate two different ancient human relatives walked upright around a muddy lake in Kenya.

Pictured above is a fossil footprint believed to have been created by a hominin species known as Paranthropus boisei, one of 12 such footprints unearthed in Kenya that date back 1.5 million years. The dig took place in 2022, when Hatala and his colleagues ...

Scientists discovered fossilized footprints along Lake Turkana, Kenya, revealing that early human ancestors Homo erectus and Paranthropus boisei coexisted around 1.5 million years ago. The distinct footprints show different walking styles,

Newly discovered 1.5-million-year-old footprints reveal how two extinct human species crossed paths within hours of each other.

Two sets of fossilized footprints from early human species were made within a few hours of each other about 1.5 million years ago, researchers suggest