The reconstruction of a skeleton reveals the anatomy of 'Homo habilis'

BarcelonaShorter, less robust, and with proportionally longer and stronger arms than theHomo erectusThat's how it is.Homo habilisThe skeleton, named KNM-ER 64061, lived more than 2 million years ago in East Turkana, northern Kenya. It is the most complete skeleton of this hominid, which predated theHomo erectus and which has many anatomical features similar to later species. KNM-ER 64061 measured 160 centimeters in height and weighed between 30.7 and 32.7 kilograms.

It is an exceptionally well-preserved skeleton: both clavicles, fragments of the scapulae (shoulder blades), the humeri, the two forearm bones (radii and ulnae), fragments of the pelvis (hip bones), and part of the sacrum have been studied. Furthermore, this set of bones is associated with an almost complete set of mandibular teeth, which has allowed researchers from the Catalan Institute of Paleontology Miquel Crusafont (ICP-BUSCA) to confidently assign all the remains to the same individual and species. Homo habilisThe forearm, in relation to the upper arm, was proportionally longer than in theHomo erectusa feature that connects the first Homo with earlier human relatives such as theAustralopithecus afarensis, who lived more than a million years earlier.

The bones of KNM-ER 64061 were discovered in 2012 during a campaign led by paleontologist Meave Leakey (Turkana Basin Institute). Subsequent surveying and excavation of the surrounding area yielded additional fragments of postcranial bones, which had to be pieced together like a jigsaw puzzle before morphological analysis could begin. "Meave Leakey invited me to join the study in 2014, but it took a whole decade to complete the morphological work on this skeleton," explains Ashley S. Hammond, ICREA research fellow at ICP-BUSCA and one of the study's authors.

Before this discovery, only a small number of individuals ofHomo habilis in which the bones were clearly associated with diagnostic dental remains. "In fact, only three other very fragmentary and incomplete partial skeletons of this important species are known," explains Professor Fred Grine, lead author of the study and researcher at Stony Brook University. However, many mysteries remain to be solved, because there is no clue as to what the lower limbs of this hominin were like. The research has been published in The Anatomical Record.