NEWS AND VIEWS
21 January 2026 A variety of early hominin species shared the Afar region of Ethiopia Fossils reveal that at least four types of hominin, including Paranthropus, were present in northern Ethiopia between 3 million and 2.4 million years ago. By Carol V. Ward ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6255-9668 0 Carol V. Ward Carol V. Ward is in the Department of Pathology and Anatomical Sciences and in the Department of Anthropology, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri 65212, USA. View author publications PubMed Google Scholar
There is immense interest in understanding the history and evolution of our species and that of our hominin relatives, which are all of the species on the branches of the evolutionary tree after the split from the chimpanzees. Writing in Nature, Alemseged et al.1 and Villmoare et al.2 present fossil evidence that provides missing information about the early hominin populations of Africa.
doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-025-03727-9
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Competing Interests The author declares no competing interests.
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