Homo Erectus? 1.4 Million-Year-Old Human Hand Bone Found At Kaitio Site In Kenya
Wednesday, December 18, 2013 - 12:03
in Paleontology & Archaeology
A new hand bone from a human ancestor who roamed the earth in East Africa approximately 1.42 million years ago has been found at the 'Kaitio' site in West Turkana, Kenya. Humans have a distinctive hand anatomy that allows us to make and use tools. Apes and other non-human primates do not have these distinctive anatomical features in their hands, and the point in time at which these features first appeared in human evolution is unknown. The researchers suspect the bone belonged to the early human species, Homo erectus, making this bone is the earliest evidence of a modern human-like hand and indicating that this anatomical feature existed more than half a million years earlier than previously known. read more