Overview
- A paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on July 27–28, 2026 describes 21 footprints at the GaJi10 lakeshore in northern Kenya and dates the trackway to about 1.43 million years ago.
- The international team attributes the prints to Paranthropus boisei based on foot shape, gait analysis, and comparisons with modern and fossil foot anatomy using 2D and 3D imaging.
- Measurements of the largest prints yield revised body estimates of up to about 1.8 meters tall and roughly 75 kilograms, which are larger than prior reconstructions based mainly on skulls and teeth.
- The assemblage records impressions from eight individuals who appear to have moved together at the same moment, and the authors interpret the group as mostly adult males, raising new ideas about P. boisei social behavior.
- Researchers say the finds underline lakeshore sites in the Lake Turkana basin as key windows on Early Pleistocene life and plan more fieldwork later in 2026 to expand excavations and test the study’s interpretations.