Final answer:
The discovery of Kenyanthropus platyops was crucial for understanding the diversity and complexity of early hominin evolution, challenging previous evolutionary models.
Step-by-step explanation:
The discovery of Kenyanthropus platyops was significant because it offered new insights into the evolution of early hominins and their phylogenetic relationships. This discovery highlighted the diversity of early hominids and challenged established notions of human evolution.
Kenyanthropus platyops, which lived about 3.5 million years ago, presents features distinct from other hominins of that period, suggesting a complex evolutionary web with multiple lineages of early human ancestors existing simultaneously.