Homo habilis

Homo habilis, meaning handy man, is an extinct species of archaic human that lived in the Early Pleistocene of East and South Africa, from about 2.4 million to 1.65 million years ago, making it one of the oldest known archaic humans. When it was described in 1964 many researchers argued it should be folded into Australopithecus africanus, but it gained acceptance as more fossils were found, and by the 1980s it was proposed as a direct ancestor of Homo erectus and so of modern humans, a view now debated. Several poorly identified specimens were once assigned to it, prompting proposals to split off other species, of which only Homo rudolfensis has won wide support. Brain size ranged from roughly 500 to 900 cubic centimetres. Body proportions are known only from two fragmentary skeletons, and the presumed female OH 62 has been estimated at 100 to 120 centimetres tall under australopithecine proportions or about 148 centimetres under human ones. The species made Oldowan stone tools, used mainly for butchering, and is thought to have eaten and scavenged meat.