News Anthropology

Scans tell gripping tale of possible ancient tool use

Fossils contain inner signs of humanlike hands nearly 3 million years ago

Hand bones

ADVANCE HAND  High concentrations of spongy inner bone in an ancient hominid’s knuckles and thumb base (indicated by arrows, red indicates more spongy bone) suggest humanlike hands evolved nearly 3 million years ago.

M.M. Skinner et al/Science Vol. 347, issue 6220 (2015)

By Bruce Bower

- More than 2 years ago

Members of the human evolutionary family possessed hands capable of making and using tools at least 200,000 years before the earliest evidence of stone implements, scientists say.