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Fossil footprints reveal body size and group dynamics of 1.4-million-year-old human relative

New study provides a rare snapshot of “fossil behavior” from Paranthropus boisei, an ancient hominin group in northern Kenya

An international team of researchers from the US and Kenya found tracks showing eight Paranthropus boisei individuals — an extinct “cousin” of modern humans — in one place at one time. All of the individuals are thought to be adults, and some appear to have been much larger in body size than previous estimates based on rare fossil bones. 

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© Kay Behrensmeyer