Overview

• Thirteen teeth from Ledi-Geraru in Ethiopia are attributed to early Homo (dated 2.78–2.59 million years ago) and to an unnamed Australopithecus species (around 2.63 million years ago), providing direct evidence of their coexistence.
• Stratigraphic and radiometric dating places both genera in the same eastern African environment roughly 2.6–2.8 million years ago, reinforcing a branching model of human evolution.
• The Australopithecus specimens display dental morphology distinct from A. afarensis and A. garhi but remain too fragmentary for formal species naming.
• Ledi-Geraru’s prior discoveries—including some of the oldest Oldowan stone tools and a 2.8-million-year-old Homo mandible—frame this find within a broader record of early hominid activity.
• Researchers are conducting enamel isotope analyses to reconstruct diet and niche partitioning, and they emphasize that additional fossil finds are essential to clarify taxonomy and behaviour.