Homo Habilis

Homo habilis is an archaic species of Stone Age human which lived between roughly 2.1 and 1.5 million years ago (mya), during the Early Pleistocene.[1] The species was first discovered by anthropologists Mary and Louis Leakey at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania in 1955, associated with the Oldowan stone tool industry.[2]

H. habilis is considered to be intermediate between Australopithecus afarensis and H. erectus. It has been suggested reclassifying the species as Australopithecus habilis, as one of the main arguments for its classification into Homo was the now outdated idea that it was the earliest human ancestor to use stone tools. H. habilis likely used tools for butchering meat which it scavenged from more fearsome carnivores.

H. habilis coexisted with other early hominins, such as the robust Paranthropus and Homo erectus.