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Footprints of the Past: Discoveries of Coexistence of Homo erectus and Paranthropus boisei

Updated: Apr 22

By Isha Poluru

The Lawrenceville School, NJ


There may be more than 1 trillion species on this planet, ranging from the deadly Amanita phalloides (death cap mushrooms) to the mighty Elephas maximus (asian elephant). Looking around, you will encounter many species of organisms, including fellow humans - members of the species Homo sapiens. Although we may differ in skin tone, lifestyle, and worldview, every human being on the planet today belongs to the Homo sapiens species, regardless of these differences.


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When scientists give a name to an organism, the name is given in two parts: first the genus name (indicating which family it belongs to) followed by the name of the specific species. For instance, lions and snow leopards share the same genus - Panthera- because they are in the same roaring feline family, however their species names differ. Similarly, the scientific name of modern humans, Homo sapiens, indicates that our genus, Homo, also includes other species besides our own.


Indeed, the genus Homo includes a variety of species of hominids that preceded the Homo sapiens, who have only existed since about 200,00 years ago,—species that lived hundreds of thousands to millions of years ago, before ultimately going extinct. These species include the Homo habilis (the "handy man," who created some of the first tools for survival), Homo neanderthalensis (the first hominids who learned to adapt to life in glacial environments), and Homo floresiensis (the dwarf hominids of the island of Flores in Indonesia). Though extinct, the study of their fossils provides important insights into how Earth's climate and ecosystems changed, and what resources were available during their time.


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One of the most surprising recent discoveries involves the Homo erectus, another species of the hominid family, and the possibility that it coexisted with other species such as the Paranthropus boisei.


Between 2021 to 2022, a team of researchers found footprints of the Homo erectus and the Paranthropus boisei near lake Turkana in Kenya. The Paranthropus boisei was another species related to the Hominid family; they had smaller brains than the Homo erectus, huge chewing muscles and large molar teeth. Although similar to the Homo erectus in some aspects, they died out about 1.2 millions years ago, likely due to dietary changes caused by environmental shifts. In contrast the Homo erectus lived until about 50,000 years ago.

The discovered footprints are estimated to be 1.5 million years old, they were found with a set of approximately 12 prints in a line with another set of footprints crossing perpendicularly to the former. These prints are thought to have been preserved by a rise in water that brought over sediment which covered and preserved the footprints made in the mud of the shore of the lake, locking them in time so that they could enter the geologic record. The condition of the Homo erectus and the Paranthropus boisei footprints with absence of cracking shows that these footprints were made within hours or days of each other. This suggests that the Home erectus and the Paranthropus boisei had co-existed in the same environment at the same time and may have interacted with each other. Although previous fossil findings showed that these organisms had lived in the same area at some point, these fossilized footprints provide direct evidence to correlate that these beings had lived in the same area in the same relative time, as both of their footsteps were fossilized together in a condition that indicates as such. Scientists say that these two species could have been able to co-exist due to their different diets, however it is likely that they would have competed for resources in order to survive.


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These new discoveries of how human species may have cohabitated with other species raises a lot of new questions, how did these interactions (or lack thereof) affect the survival of the hominids and what effects did it have on the evolution of social behavior? While we may not have all the answers at date, new archeology discoveries provide evolving evidence to help the present piece together what may have occurred in the past. In the words of Harcourt-Smith a research associate at the American Museum of Natural History who is involved in the field of paleontology, “Human evolution is complicated and messy and there’s lots of experimentation. It’s not a straight line,”. With every discovery, we are reminded that the story of our ancestors is far more complex—and fascinating—than we ever imagined.


*Further reading: Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari. It addresses how the Homo sapiens originated, evolved, and survived to date. It includes analysis on the advancement of Homo sapiens in comparison to other animals, suggesting the importance of mutations during the cognitive revolution in our current position as one of the most thriving species on the earth.


----Works Cited

Bradshaw Foundation. “Paranthropus Boisei: The 'Nutcracker Man'.” Bradshaw Foundation, Retrieved February 16, 2025,


International Cat Care. “The Origins of Cats.” International Cat Care, Retrieved February 16, 2025, from


Mashable. “1 Trillion Species on Earth.” Mashable, Retrieved February 16, 2025, from https://mashable.com/article/1-


Rutgers University. “Fossil First: Scientists Find 15-Million-Year-Old Footprints from Two Different Species of Human.”


The Guardian. “Dinosaurs: Fossils Reveal Lost Worlds.” The Guardian, 21 June 2013, Retrieved February 16, 2025, from


Washington State University. “Timeline of Human Evolution.” Washington State University, Retrieved February 16, 2025,

 
 
 

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