Science
Footprints in Kenya shed light on prehistoric human cousin Paranthropus
Key Points
Footprints left on a muddy lakeshore in northern Kenya around 1.43 million years ago are providing new insight into the size and behaviour of a species in the human evolutionary lineage that was the last of its kind, known for extensive anatomical adaptations for eating tough vegetation. The species, Paranthropus boisei, is known mostly from skull and tooth fossils. Now researchers working along the eastern side of Kenya’s Lake Turkana have identified 21 footprints made by eight individuals...
Footprints left on a muddy lakeshore in northern Kenya around 1.43 million years ago are providing new insight into the size and behaviour of a species in the human evolutionary lineage that was the last of its kind, known for extensive anatomical adaptations for eating tough vegetation.
The species, Paranthropus boisei, is known mostly from skull and tooth fossils. Now researchers working along the eastern side of Kenya’s Lake Turkana have identified 21 footprints made by eight individuals of...