From Newsgroup: sci.anthropology.paleo

New discoveries of Australopithecus and Homo from Ledi-Geraru, Ethiopia

Abstract

The time interval between about three and two million years ago is a
critical period in human evolutionrCothis is when the genera Homo and Paranthropus first appear in the fossil record and a possible ancestor
of these genera, Australopithecus afarensis, disappears. In eastern
Africa, attempts to test hypotheses about the adaptive contexts that led
to these events are limited by a paucity of fossiliferous exposures that capture this interval. Here we describe the age, geologic context and
dental morphology of new hominin fossils recovered from the Ledi-Geraru Research Project area, Ethiopia, which includes sediments from this
critically underrepresented period. We report the presence of Homo at
2.78 and 2.59 million years ago and Australopithecus at 2.63 million
years ago. Although the Australopithecus specimens cannot yet be
identified to species level, their morphology differs from A. afarensis
and Australopithecus garhi. These specimens suggest that
Australopithecus and early Homo co-existed as two non-robust lineages in
the Afar Region before 2.5 million years ago, and that the hominin
fossil record is more diverse than previously known. Accordingly, there
were as many as four hominin lineages living in eastern Africa between
3.0 and 2.5 million years ago: early Homo, Paranthropus, A. garhi, and
the newly discovered Ledi-Geraru Australopithecus.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09390-4
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