Joshua Robinson co-author on a Nature article
Nature article is now live and can be shared: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09390-4
The study presents new hominin fossils from the Ledi-Geraru project area in the Afar region of Ethiopia. Specifically, we report the presence ofHomo at 2.78 and 2.59 million years ago and Australopithecus at 2.63 million years ago. These specimens suggest that Australopithecus and early Homo co-existed in the Afar before 2.5 million years ago and that the hominin fossil record is more diverse than previously known. Neither theAustralopithecus nor Homo fossils can be attributed to any currently known/named species, although remain too fragmentary for new species identifications at this time. This follows research previously published from Ledi-Geraru that reported the earliest fossils of the genus Homo back in 2015. Both the co-existence of the two genera and the late appearance of Australopithecus in this region are novel findings.
