Homo habilis
Homo habilis are considered to be the first true humans who lived from about 2.5 to 1.8
million years ago and inhabited the southern and eastern parts of Africa. The climate
was hot and dry.
Homo habilis is the earliest known species to show novel differences from the
chimpanzee and australopithecine skulls. The face is still primitive and projecting, but
the jaw is pulled under the brain, with smaller molars (though still much larger than in
modern humans), and the skull is thinner, with a distinctive rounded shape, vertical sides
and a small forehead above the brows. In addition, Homo habilis had a fairly apelike
physical form: its arms were almost as long as its legs.
Homo habilis may have stood at around 3 - 5.5 feet tall and weighed less than modern
humans. Their jaws were much larger than ours.
The two signature evolutionary trends in hominids are increasing brain size. Their brain
sized averaged about 650cc-800cc, ½ the size of modern man. They also had a
proportionate reduction in the size of the face. In Homo habilis, the brain shape is more
humanlike: the bulge of Broca's area, implicated in human language, is visible in at least
one Habilis brain cast.
Because Homo habilis was had an increase in brainpower, they are the first known
group to make tools out of sharpened stone, bone and quartz. Habilis was given the
nickname “Handy Man” because of his efficient use of tools. He is associated with the
Oldowan tool industry, which is characterized by crude stone flakes, rounded hammer
stones, and bones used for digging. Homo habilis is not the first hunter. Odd stones and
pieces of bone may have been used as weapons or scrapers much earlier in time. Tools
now begin to show up regularly near dismembered animal remains such as mice and
squirrels. One interpretation of the evidence is that Homo habilis scavenged dead prey
killed by other animals, and used sharpened stones, bones or wood to extract the
marrow from bones too large for carnivores to break. They also used the sharpened
tools to scrape hide off of animals. Although this group made stone tools and weapons,
these tools and weapons were still pretty basic.
Homo habilis may have moved together in larger groups for protection and efficiency.
They followed food sources, and set up camp as needed. Whenever possible, they
found shelter under cliffs and around trees making shelters from sticks. You might think
they would look for caves to spend the night, but caves quite often had dangerous
occupants, just as they do today.
Their main diet probably consisted of fruits, roots, nuts and vegetables that they found
growing wild. However, they were Omnivores so they also killed small animals and/or
scavenged fat-rich marrow from the animal bones. Homo habilis probably did not stay in
one place very long, but were always on the move, in search of food. The size of their
group depended on the availability of food and water.
Scientists are pretty sure that Homo habilis built campfires. But they did not know how to
make fire. Since they did not have fire-making skills, they had to wait until they found
something burning from natural causes, for example, from a lightening strike. They
learned how to contain fire with stones. A campfire had to be carefully watched, because
if the fire went out, they did not know how to start it again. The area around the campfire
was probably used as a sleeping area. A roaring campfire would keep most wild animals
away, as most are afraid of fire. When they broke camp, they probably attempted to
bring their fire with them by carrying several lit branches, with which to start a new
campfire when they stopped again. If their branches went out, they did without fire until
they found something burning somewhere else.
Scientists believe that Homo habilis used body language, touch, facial expressions and
grunts to communicate with each other. Scientists also believe that they didn’t bury their
dead.