Homo Habilis is an ancient human species that lived between 2.3 and 1.65
million years ago in East and South Africa. By the 1980s, it was thought that H.
Habilis was a human ancestor that evolved into Homo erectus, which then
evolved into modern humans.
The brain size of H. Habilis, like that of modern Homo, ranged from 500 to 900
cm 3 . The body dimensions of H. Habilis are based mostly on assuming a
comparable anatomy to earlier australopithecines, and are only known from
two severely fragmentary skeletons.
Taxonomy
Jonathan Leakey found the first known remains, a fragmentary juvenile skull,
hand, and foot bones dated to 1.75 million years ago in Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania, in 1960.
After its discovery, it was highly argued whether H. Habilis should be reclassified as Australopithecus africanus, owing to the age of the bones and the fact that Homo was thought to have evolved in Asia at the time. As more fossil pieces and species were discovered, the classification H. Habilis began to gain acceptance.
In 1986, American anthropologist Tim D. White found a fragmented skeleton
with H. Habilis skull fragments, defining characteristics of H. Habilis skeletal
anatomy for the first time and revealing more Australopithecus-like than Homo-like traits.
Classification
There is still debate about whether H. Habilis is an ancestral to H. erectus or an
offshoot of the human line, and if all specimens ascribed to H. Habilis are valid
whether the species is an amalgamation of several Australopithecus and Homo
species.
Though it is now widely accepted that Homo sapiens developed from Australopithecus, the exact date and location of this split has been hotly debated, with a variety of Australopithecus species being offered as the ancestor.
The finding of the earliest Homo specimen in the Afar Region of Ethiopia, dating about 2.8 million years ago, suggests that the genus developed from A.
afarensis about this period. The ancestor of H. Habilis might be the species to
which the oldest homo specimen belongs, however this is unknown.
Anatomy
Skull
It is widely assumed that brain size increased fast through the human line, with
H. Habilis brain size being less than that of H. erectus, increasing from around
600–650 cm 3 in H. Habilis to around 900–1,000 cm 3 in H. erectus during the
transition between species.
In compared to australopithecines, the brain architecture of all Homo sapiens
has an enlarged cerebrum. The tooth rows of H. Habilis were V-shaped rather than U-shaped, and the mouth jutted outwards, despite the fact that the face was flat from the nose up.
Limbs
H. Habilis and Australopithecines arms were thought to be disproportionately lengthy and hence equipped for climbing and swinging. The hand bones show dexterity and climbing abilities, as well as precision grasping.
The foot has a protruding toe bone and compacted mid-foot joint structures
that limit motion between the foot and ankle as well as in the front foot. H.
Habilis was able to run for long periods of time, which is assumed to have developed later in H. erectus.
Culture
It appears to have deliberately picked lithic cores and recognized that particular rocks would break in a certain way when struck hard enough and in the appropriate area, producing choppers, polyhedrons, and discoid, among other things.
Written By - Grasha Mittal
Edited By - Vanshu Verma
H. Habilis and Australopithecines arms were thought to be disproportionately lengthy and hence equipped for climbing and swinging. The hand bones show dexterity and climbing abilities, as well as precision grasping.
The foot has a protruding toe bone and compacted mid-foot joint structures
that limit motion between the foot and ankle as well as in the front foot. H.
Habilis was able to run for long periods of time, which is assumed to have developed later in H. erectus.
Culture
- Diet - H. Habilis is assumed to have gotten its meal from scavenging rather than hunting, posing as a confrontational scavenger and taking corpses from smaller predators like jackals or cheetahs. H. Habilis did not eat difficult meals on a regular basis. They are omnivorous and somewhere between tough-food and leaf eaters.
- Technology - The Early Stone Age is connected with H. Habilis. These tools were most likely used to slaughter and skin animals and crush bones, but they were also used to saw and scrape wood and chop delicate vegetation.
It appears to have deliberately picked lithic cores and recognized that particular rocks would break in a certain way when struck hard enough and in the appropriate area, producing choppers, polyhedrons, and discoid, among other things.
Written By - Grasha Mittal
Edited By - Vanshu Verma
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