1.4-Million-Year-Old Footprints Reveal a Giant Human Relative
Researchers have discovered 1.4-million-year-old footprints in Kenya belonging to Paranthropus boisei, an extinct human relative. The findings suggest these hominins were larger than previously thought and may have exhibited complex social behaviors like traveling in all-male groups.
Why it matters
This discovery challenges previous assumptions about the physical stature and social structure of early human relatives, providing new insights into human evolution.
A 1.4-million-year-old trail of footprints reveals that a powerful human relative grew nearly as large as us and may have traveled in all-male groups.
Eight individuals walked across the wet ground beside an ancient Kenyan lake. Within a short time, sediment buried their footprints and preserved a scene that would remain hidden for roughly 1.4 million years.
The tracks offer something bones rarely can: evidence of several extinct human relatives moving through the same place at nearly the same moment. Researchers believe the footprints were left by a group of Paranthropus boisei , a powerful-jawed hominin that lived alongside early members of the human genus but ultimately disappeared without leaving descendants.
All eight individuals appear to have been adults, and most may have been males. Their apparent decision to travel together raises the possibility that Paranthropus boisei had a more complex social life than its fragmentary fossil record has revealed.
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