The story of human origins — a saga unfolding over millions of years — is continually being rewritten. Few landscapes have shaped that narrative as profoundly as Ethiopia’s arid plains, where discoveries have redefined our understanding of evolution and affirmed the nation’s reputation as the cradle of humankind.
In November 1974, in the Afar region’s Hadar site, paleoanthropologists Donald Johanson and Tom Gray unearthed a find that captured the world’s imagination: a remarkably complete skeleton of a female hominin. Nicknamed Lucy, the 3.2-million-year-old Australopithecus afarensis offered the first clear proof that our ancestors were walking upright long before their brains expanded.
Lucy’s fame was soon joined by other breakthroughs. In 2000, Zeresenay Alemseged and his team uncovered the fossil of a three-year-old girl at Dikika, a few miles from Hadar. The 3.3-million-year-old specimen, nicknamed Selam — “peace” in Amharic — preserved a largely intact spinal column and offered rare insights into the anatomy and growth of early hominins.
Then came Ardi. Found in 1994 in the Middle Awash by Tim White and Yohannes Haile-Selassie, the 4.4-million-year-old female, Ardipithecus ramidus, remains one of the most complete hominin fossils ever recovered. Her skeleton revealed a startling combination: tree-climbing adaptations alongside an ability to walk on two legs. The discovery challenged long-held assumptions that our earliest ancestors resembled chimpanzees. Instead, it suggested that both humans and chimps evolved separately from a more generalized common ancestor.
Together, Lucy, Selam, and Ardi form a vivid — if still incomplete — record of human evolution, with Ethiopia as its stage.
Now, 50 years after Lucy’s discovery, Ethiopia is once again at the center of the debate. At the Ledi-Geraru site in Afar, researchers have uncovered 13 fossilized teeth from two hominin lineages: an unidentified species of Australopithecus and an early member of the genus Homo. Dated to 2.6 to 2.8 million years ago, the teeth were found at two locations — the Aaboli area in the north of the Gidd Sande site, and the Lee Adoyta basin farther east.
The find is remarkable not only for its age but for what it implies: for the first time, scientists have direct evidence that early Homo and a new species of Australopithecus lived in the same region at the same time. It offers a rare glimpse into a poorly understood chapter of evolution, bridging a crucial gap in the fossil record.
“This new research shows that the picture many of us carry in our minds — an ape slowly turning into a Neanderthal and then a modern human — is wrong,” said Brian Villmoare, a professor at Arizona State University’s Institute of Human Origins. “Evolution doesn’t work like that.”
He added that while scientists know what the teeth and jaws of the earliest Homo looked like, far more fossils are needed. “What’s exciting is that we now see overlap — but we need more fossils. Teeth alone is not enough”
According to Villmoare, the research team used layers of volcanic ash to date the fossils, showing that the species lived between 2.63 and 2.8 million years ago. The findings, he said, confirm that human evolution was already underway during this critical period. They also suggest that early Homo and an as-yet-unidentified Australopithecus species were sharing the same landscapes — and likely competing for the same food.
Speaking at the announcement, Amy Rector, co-director of the Ledi-Geraru Research Project, noted that the study site lies in the Lower Awash Valley of northern Afar. The team focused on the period between 2.5 and 3 million years ago, a time when the evolutionary relationship between Australopithecus and Homo remains unresolved.
“How Australopithecus and Homo are related is still an open question,” Rector said. “Our discoveries at Ledi-Geraru add crucial pieces to that puzzle. For the first time, we have evidence that the two coexisted in eastern Africa during this critical stretch of evolution.”
She added that the overlap between the two lineages raises new questions: “What did their worlds look like when they woke up in the morning? How did they compete across the landscape? And who ultimately survived together in the Afar region?”
For Yohannes Haile-Selassie, director of the Institute of Human Origins at Arizona State University, the discoveries underscore Ethiopia’s continuing centrality in the study of human origins. “The new species being found here are not just new names,” he said. “They’re new information.”
He emphasized that the fossils suggest pre-human history was not defined by a single ancestral line, but by multiple related species living side by side. “We’ve long known that Paranthropus, dating to about 1.5 million years ago, coexisted with Homo,” Yohannes explained. “But this discovery pushes that coexistence back much further. It’s evidence that another, previously unknown species of Australopithecus also shared the landscape with early Homo.”
Still, he cautioned, more evidence is needed before scientists can name the new species. “This isn’t something you can base on two or three teeth,” he said. “We need a complete skull or jawbone to be certain. That will depend on future excavations.”
Yohannes noted that this is the first time a fossil of Australopithecus dating to 2.8 million years has been found in the Afar region — older even than Lucy. For him, the discoveries both confirm Ethiopia’s role as the birthplace of humanity and open the door to new research questions.
The finds at Ledi-Geraru extend the story of human origins beyond the iconic figure of Lucy. By revealing two distinct hominin lineages — an early Homo and an unidentified Australopithecus — living side by side, the discoveries challenge the long-held, linear picture of human evolution. Instead, they suggest a branching, competitive landscape where multiple species once vied for survival.
