Tools Invented Earlier Than Previously Thought: Australopithecus, Not Early Humans, Were the First to be Handy

New research has shown that species belonging to the homo genus were not the first to have used tools.

According to The Washington Post, the ape-like Australopithecus africanus which roamed 3.5 million years ago may have used tools. This hypothesis was made by researchers at University of Kent, University College London, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig (Germany) and the Vienna University of Technology who studied hands of Australopithecus fossils and compared them with bones of human hands. They found similarities in the shape of soft bone part of metacarpals, which support fingers. However no similarities were noted with ape species like chimpanzees.

The hallmark feature of tool users like humans is the bend in soft bone, shaped by pinching like action over a lifetime of hand use. Other primates which primarily use limbs for climbing trees, have differently shaped hands. The analysis of Australopithecus hands showed that it used them for frequent climbing but also handled tools, noted from the bend caused by pinching or squeezing action.

"This new evidence changes our understanding of the behaviour of our early ancestors and, in particular, suggests that in some aspects they were more similar to humans than we previously thought," says Matthew Skinner of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and the University of Kent, in a news release.

New Scientist reported that the discovery would change the belief that Homo Habilis was the earliest user of tools. Animal bones discovered with tool marks made by Australopithecus in 2010 in Ethiopia, are said to be at least 800,000 older than oldest known stone tools.