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Did Homo habilis and Homo erectus live at the same time near Lake Turkana?

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An illustration of Homo habilis, an early human ancestor, shown walking upright with a hairy body and ape-like features. A scale beside the figure indicates height in inches and centimeters. — Homo habilis Artist's rendering of *Homo habilis*, which lived from 2 to 1.5 million years ago.

Yes, evidence from the Koobi Fora region near Lake Turkana indicates that Homo habilis and Homo erectus (also referred to as H. ergaster) lived at the same time in that location.12

While H. habilis is generally considered to have appeared earlier, fossil discoveries east of Lake Turkana—specifically a 1.44-million-year-old jawbone ascribed to H. habilis and a 1.55-million-year-old skull belonging to H. erectus—provide strong evidence that these two species coexisted for a period. This overlap challenges the notion of a simple, linear progression in human evolution and suggests that early human populations were more diverse than previously recognized.23