1.43-Million-Year-Old Footprints Reveal Paranthropus boisei Social Behavior

Researchers have identified 21 footprints made by eight Paranthropus boisei individuals on a mudflat along the eastern side of Kenya's Lake Turkana, dating to around 1.43 million years ago. The tracks, attributed to the species based on foot shape and gait, were likely left by adult males traveling together without females or children, offering rare insight into the social dynamics of this hominin. Paranthropus boisei, known for adaptations to eating tough vegetation, is the last of its kind in the human evolutionary lineage. The study, led by palaeoanthropologist Kevin Hatala of Chatham University and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Slightly older footprints described in a 2024 study showed Paranthropus boisei coexisted with Homo erectus in the same region.