NMNH - Fossil Footprint, research site

Geological trench at the footprint site that revealed multiple stratigraphic levels for future research. Kenyan excavators (left to right) Apolo Alkoro Longaye, Hilary Sale, Ben Sila, Losogo Nyakitala and David Kipkebut provided assistance with Behrensmeyer’s geological work on the site in 2023. Note: Photo included with permission of all who are pictured.

In addition to studying the newly discovered site, the research team expanded its analyses to other fossil footprint sites known from the surrounding area. These sites yielded further evidence that Homo erectus and Paranthropus boisei lived alongside each other at sites spanning up to 200,000 years. This prolonged overlap suggests low to neutral competition between these two species, which may have enabled their long-term coexistence during the early Pleistocene. Later, environmental shifts could have impacted resource availability, increasing competition and potentially driving the behavioral adaptations that have come to define the genus Homo. Resolving these kinds of questions may be possible in the future.