In 2021, Hatala was part of a team that reported footprints found in Tanzania were made by two distinct hominid species 3.6 million years ago. Now, he’s found a similar occurrence in Kenya.

The researchers uncovered three single footprints that seemed to come from the same type of hominid, and one long, continuous trail of prints that came from another.

It wasn’t immediately clear that the footprints were from distinct species. Because the fossil record is sparse, “you can’t do the Cinderella thing of fitting the foot skeleton into the footprint,” Hatala said.

Instead, the scientists relied on results from earlier experiments that used X-ray technology to understand how foot motion affects imprints left in the mud. Compared with the continuous trail of prints, the three isolated footprints all had higher arches, indicating that they arose from a gait more similar to that of humans today.

The scientists also found that the feet responsible for the trail of prints had a big toe with a position that changed from step to step. The toe was not as mobile as those on apes, but more varied than what is seen in modern humans.

“That, to me, is fascinating,” said William Harcourt-Smith, a paleoanthropologist at Lehman College and the American Museum of National History in New York, who wrote a perspective article that accompanied the study in Science. “Here we’ve got diversity in the way these creatures are moving around on the landscape, in each other’s backyards.”

During the campaign, Donald Trump swore he had “nothing to do with” a right-wing policy blueprint known as Project 2025 that would overhaul the federal government, even though many of those involved in developing the plans were his allies.

Trump even described many of the policy goals as “absolutely ridiculous.” And during his debate with Vice President Kamala Harris, he said he was “not going to read it.”

Now, as he plans his agenda for his return to the White House, the president-elect has recruited at least a half dozen architects and supporters of the plan to oversee key issues, including the federal budget, intelligence gathering and his promised plans for mass deportations.

The shift, his critics say, is not exactly a surprise. Trump disavowed the 900-page manifesto when polls showed it was extremely unpopular with voters. Now that he has won a second term, they say, he appears to be brushing those concerns aside.

“President-elect Trump has dropped all pretense and is charging ahead hand in hand with the right-wing industry players shaping an agenda he denied for the whole campaign,” said Tony Carrk, executive director of Accountable.US, a government watchdog agency that has been tracking Trump’s Cabinet picks with ties to the project.

Trump’s Cabinet picks and other appointments have reaffirmed the fears of many Democrats and government watchdogs who say Trump will use Project 2025 as a road map to expand his executive power, replace civil servants with political loyalists and gut government agencies such as the Department of Education.

Trump has picked Russell Vought, an author of Project 2025, to lead the powerful Office of Management and Budget. In choosing Vought, Trump will have someone who views the position as far more expansive than just overseeing the budget.

Vought wrote in Project 2025 that the person picked for the job should view themselves as an “approximation of the president’s mind,” while establishing a reputation of the keeper of “commander’s intent.”

There is also a sentimental loss caused by not having the tablets, inmates and their families say. Gordon, who is serving a life sentence for murder, said he lost the only photo of his late father when his tablet died, as well as a photo of his daughter.

Rierson, who spent eight years in the Faribault Correctional Facility, would often go to sleep with meditative music playing through the headphones attached to his tablet. He said he would spend hours looking at photos of family members, and that the devices provided a mental health benefit to many.

“It’s sort of comforting to know that there are people out there that care about you,” he said. “It’s that connection that gives me a reason to do better in prison.”

Rierson noted that he is “very skeptical” the DOC would follow through with providing the tablets this year. In the meantime, while inmates continue to wait for the new tablets, Klosterbuer said she hopes for an alternative. “If you’re not going to get them tablets, at least accommodate them with something else, like giving them more time at the kiosks,” Klosterbuer said.