The story of human evolution has long been told as a simple progression, but new fossil evidence from Ethiopia reveals a far more complex beginning. Researchers working in the Afar Region at the site of Ledi-Geraru uncovered fossilized teeth dating between 2.6 and 3.0 million years ago, showing that early members of our genus, Homo, lived at the same time as Australopithecus.
“This is the first evidence that Homo and Australopithecus overlapped 2.6 million years ago,” says Lucas Delezene, an associate professor of anthropology at the University of Arkansas and second author of the study. The discovery challenges the assumption that Australopithecus disappeared around 3 million years ago and that Homo quickly replaced other species.
Instead, early humans were part of a crowded evolutionary landscape. “People often think evolution is a linear progression, like the March of Progress, but in reality humans are only one twig of a much bushier tree,” Delezene explains. The findings suggest that Homo coexisted with different hominins in different regions—Paranthropus in southern Africa and Australopithecus in Ethiopia.
The fossils are all teeth, a crucial record since enamel preserves well over time. Subtle but consistent differences in shape distinguish Homo from Australopithecus. However, the team still lacks skulls or postcranial bones, leaving questions about how these species lived, competed, and divided resources.
Did Homo evolve flexible diets, tool use, or meat consumption to outcompete rivals? While the earliest Homo fossils predate known tools, competition may have driven innovations that later defined human success.
This discovery, supported by the National Science Foundation and Leakey Foundation, rewrites the timeline of our origins and reveals human evolution as a tangled, competitive story rather than a straight line.
Ancient Ethiopian Fossils Rewrite the First Chapter of Human Evolution
