Two million years ago, three different early humansโAustralopithecus,ย Paranthropus, and the earliest-knownย Homo erectusโappear to have lived at the same time in the same place, near the Drimolen Paleocave System. How much these different species interacted remains unknown. But their contemporaneous existence suggests our ancient relations were quite diverse during a key transitional period of African prehistory that saw the last days ofย Australopithecusย and the dawn ofย H. erectusโsย nearly two-million-year run.
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If [paleoanthropologist Andy] Herries and colleagues are correct that they have foundย Homo erectus,ย the early dates of the find pose an intriguing question: How did the species arrive in South Africa?
One possibility is thatย H. erectusย originated here and later spread to East Africa and then out of the continent. However, Herries says that the discovery of the oldest-known bones doesnโt necessarily meanย H. erectusย started in this locale. Perhaps they migrated to the area.
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โWe talk a lot about [diverse species coexisting] with Neanderthals, modern humans, and Denisovans, and we can see that with DNA, but we donโt have that ability with this earlier stuff,โ adds Herries. โIโm sure it happened and this may be one of the first instances where we can really see it.โ
