A Skeleton Steps Out of the Shadows

For more than half a century, Homo habilis has been a species we knew mostly by its head. Skulls, jaws, and teeth told us that this early human relative had a larger brain than australopiths and likely made stone tools. But below the neck, the species remained frustratingly incomplete. Limbs were scattered, fragmentary, and rarely belonged to the same individual.

That changes with a new fossil from northern Kenya.

In a study published in The Anatomical Record,1 an international research team describes the most complete postcranial skeleton of Homo habilis ever discovered. Known as KNM-ER 64061, the fossil dates to just over two million years ago and finally allows researchers to see how this species moved through the world.

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