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Welcome Klippspringer

Anyone else got anything to add..............OWN??

Give me a mo' ...

TP, just remember, that "'mo" usually translates to "month"!

Heres some other interesting info Homo habilis has been found at the following sites in south africa =Sterkfontein, Swartkrans, Drimolen, Cooper’s Cave, Kromdraai, Makapansgat. The characteristics that define them as a separate genus are a much more flattened face, a brain size of between 590-650cc which was alot different to the australopithecines , on average 50% larger. H.habilis was about 1.3m talls and unlike the Australopithecines made use of oldowan stone tools.

nICE TO HAVE YOU AROUND AGAIN, oDDESY. Interesting reading this thread.

Is this TRUE?????

Don't think we should keep a newbie waiting that long on his excellent response, so OWN or others, anything to add?

This is H.e responding. Yah man H. habilis, call him H.h
is my younger boet man. But this lity was gatvol hey.
One day there was a big ruccas in the family when the
old man announced that we were on the move again,
to better hunting grounds.
My little boet threw all his toys out the cave and grunted "I have had enough! All this globetrotting, for
food is really getting to me, he said! He used to worry
me my little brother. He had all these clever ideas of how to survive! We left him behind and wandered off for better hunting ground.
As we crossed the river on our mission for better pasture, I will never forget the open palm of his hairy claw swaying from side to side as if to say!!!

My little brother H.h

H.erectus must have reverted to his vegetarian roots and eaten some interesting leaves

H.E. What a wonderfully informative and humorous way of setting the Hh scene!

I'll give this until tomorrow for others to post then I'll pop the answers in

Wuz just foraging a little.

A forager to make the Bold and the Beautiful proud.

Grunt, yah well you will know what life is like. Sitting on a rock all day staring across the African plains thinking! Then come sunset, we all need to relax, exactly then when we start foraging, with motives.
After all can't sit on a rock all day.

There's a few folk in this office who use a chair as a rock and seem to be able to sit all day without doing anything




1.First discovered in 1960 in the Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania
2. Found by the Leakey team led by Louis and Mary Leakey – this specimen was actually found by an assistant (Jonathan Leakey) and has the number OH7 which is designated as the Type specimen for H.habilis.
3. There is some debate about exactly how long ago this species lived but ranges somewhere from 1.4 million years to just over 2.0 million years ago. H.rudolfensis is the fly in the jam pot here with debate around whether this is a separate species or an early H.habilis. The lower time frame (a 2000 discovery) also puts into question whether H.habilis is actually an ancestor to our leaf browsing friend H.erectus with a specimen of H.erectus being found at 1.55 million years ago.
4. The name was suggested by Raymond Dart and means "handy man" – this was given in 1964 due to the location of Oldowan tools found in the same level. Interestingly enough specimens of Paranthropus bosei were found at the same levels – could they have been using the tools as well?
5. The reasons behind putting this species as Homo and not Australopithecus came from Tobias and van Koenigswald who used three criteria:

Expanded cranial capacity (relative to africanus).
Reduced postcanine tooth size.
The presence of a precision grip (determined from the hand bones present in OH 7), which provides the anatomical basis for tool-making.

However, other factors as mentioned by Klippspringer, Ods and H.erectus also come into play here. Well done to Klippspringer for being first of the mark with a great set of answers and for the contributions of all others as well.

You will note that there is a common thread appearing through each of the discussions – where exactly do each of these species fit into the evolutionary tree. The significant overlaps that are now being found and the wide range if features such as brain size, facial features in the fossils leave enough doubt to ensure that one should not think of human evolution as a perfectly linear progression but something else entirely.

Open for discussion for a few days while I take some leave – I'll be back next Wednesday with another question.