Homo habilis is an extinct species of early humans that lived approximately 2.4 to 1.4 million years ago. This species, often referred to as “skilled man”, is known for its use of simple stone tools, which represented an important step in human evolution and provided information on the evolution of primates. This connection to toolmaking highlights the cognitive advances of early hominids, demonstrating their ability to manipulate their environment to survive. Homo habilis is a primitive hominid species that lived between 1.5 and 2.3 years ago millions of years in the grasslands of East Africa.
Known as a skilled man, this species stands out for its larger brain size compared to that of its previous ancestors, as well as for its smaller facial features. Fossils attributed to Homo habilis were first discovered in the 1960s along with stone tools, leading researchers to believe that this species may have been the first to use tools, although this theory has come under scrutiny. As scientific research progressed, many scientists have reevaluated the position of Homo habilis in the human evolutionary tree, and some suggest that it may represent an extinct branch and not a direct ancestor of modern humans. In 1964, Louis Leakey and his colleagues announced that the new species Homo habilis, or Handy Man, would be the oldest known member of our evolutionary lineage Human.
The central element of the newly recognized species was the fossil of the Olduvai hominid 7 (OH 7 for short), which consists of a lower jaw, parts of a brain cage and bones from the hand of a single individual. These bones had been found in layers discovered 1.8 million years ago in the Olduvai Gorge (Tanzania). Homo habilis, which literally translates to “skilled man”, is the oldest known member of the human genus. They lived between 2.8 and 1.5 million years ago, were omnivorous, social and inhabited large areas of sub-Saharan Africa.
When they were first discovered in the 1960s, they differed from other primitive hominids by a series of very human characteristics. These included larger brains, arched feet, smaller teeth and hand bones, suggesting that they could manipulate objects with precision. This fossil is one of the most complete skulls of this species, best known in the Turkana basin and the Olduvai Gorge, in East Africa. Many experts believe that the characteristics of the chimpanzees of the species are too many to ignore and think that it should be reclassified as Australopithecus habilis and moved to a side branch.
of the human family tree. Homo habilis is a well-known but ill-defined species and scientific opinions on the attributed specimens vary widely. Two of the skulls are very similar to Homo ergaster, but one seems to have intermediate features between Homo habilis and Homo ergaster and may represent a link between these two species. This crossing also calls into question the idea of a linear evolutionary progression in which later species sequentially approach modern humans.
Fossils of this species have been found in the countries of Kenya and Tanzania in Africa, in particular in Lake Turkana, the Olduvai Gorge and Koobi Out. If so, Homo habilis may be a direct ancestor of modern humans or that both evolved from a species yet to be discovered. Initially, this species was considered to be a direct ancestor of modern humans, but fossils discovered in the mid-1980s showed that Homo habilis had limbs more like those of an ape. Habilis are thought to have had a thick coat of body hair like that of modern non-human monkeys because they appear to have inhabited colder regions and are thought to have had a less active lifestyle than the posergaster (presumably hairless) species.
The supposed female specimen OH 62 is traditionally interpreted to mean that it measured between 100 and 120 cm (3 feet 3 inches — 3 feet 11 inches) tall and between 20 and 37 kg (44 to 82 pounds) in weight assuming proportions similar to those of Australopithecines, but assuming proportions similar to human ones, it would have measured about 148 cm (4 feet 10 inches) and 35 kg (77 pounds).As a result, many archaeologists now believe that Homo habilis may have been one of several Homo species that lived in Africa at about the same time. Homo habilis is an ancient hominid species believed to be closely related to the evolutionary line that produced modern humans. Although there is currently a general consensus on the evolution of Homo from Australopithecus, the timing and location of this division have been the subject of much debate, and it has been proposed that many Australopithecus species are the ancestor. Before the 1960s, archaeologists theorized that the path of human evolution led from Australopithecus to a species of primitive human called Homo erectus, or “upright man,” and finally to Homo sapiens.
The classification of Homo habilis remains a matter of debate, as it reflects the complexities of human evolution and the branching paths that lead to the various species of the genus Homo.
