World's Oldest Human-like Hand Bone Reveals How Humans Evolved

A 1.8 million-year-old pinky bone may be the oldest hand bond to resemble modern humans. Not only that, but the recently discovered bone suggests that humans evolved much earlier than was first believed.

One of the key features that distinguishes humans from animals is the ability to use complex tools. This is largely due to our hands, which allow us to manipulate both small and large objects with relative ease.

The researchers analyzed the bone and found something interesting. Hanging from branches bends bones that extend from the knuckle. In modern humans, though, these bones are straighter. Just like in modern humans, this particular hand bone was straight.

The bone is actually proportion to a modern human-like body, as well. The man that it comes from would have stood around 5 feet, 9 inches tall. That's huge compared to its contemporaries at the time, including H. habilis, who only stood just over 3 feet tall.

"Why is this so important? Archaeologists have gathered enough information to understand that early sites like those of Olduvai are central places where hominins repeatedly transported carcasses up to more than 770 lbs., which were obtained via hunting," said Manuel Dominguez-Rodrigo, one of the researchers, in an interview with LiveScience. "As a specialist on this topic, I always had trouble understanding how Homo habilis, barely taller than 1 meter, could efficiently hunt animals that big."

Now, the latest findings show that other hominins may have been responsible. This may explain the creation of these early sites.

The findings reveal a bit more about this early time period and show that the "modern" hand arose 400,000 years earlier than previously thought.

The findings are published in the journal Nature Communications.

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