Ultimately, researchers concluded that the teeth could only have come from a previously unknown species of early hominin. “The Lee Adoyta teeth are a previously unknown species of Australopithecus from the early Pleistocene,” researchers write. The presence of both Australopithecus and Homo at Ledi-Geraru before 2.5 million years ago suggests that early Homo did not immediately outcompete or replace its relatives. Instead, these hominin species likely shared the same semi-arid landscape, possibly even occupying similar ecological niches. This raises another intriguing question of whether the presence of a late-surviving Australopithecus species could have blocked Paranthropus from colonizing this region.