page_title: Homo habilis
section_title: Research history
hierarchical_section_title: Homo habilis / Taxonomy / Research history
caption_attribution_description: Español: Parietales y mandíbula de Homo habilis, OH 7 o "Johnny's Child". Réplica. Holotipo de la especie. Posiblemente un varon de entre 10 y 12 años. Descubierto por John Leakey Original: FLK NN, Garganta de olduvai (Tanzania) 1,7 millones de años Museo Nacional de Dar Es Salaam (Tanzania) Réplica: Instituto de Evolución en África Exhibido en exposición temporal, "La cuna de la humanidad", en el Museo Arqueológico de Regional de Madrid
context_page_description: Homo habilis is a species of archaic human from the Early Pleistocene of East and South Africa about 2.3–1.65 million years ago. Upon species description in 1964, H. habilis was highly contested, with many researchers recommending it be synonymised with Australopithecus africanus, the only other early hominin known at the time, but H. habilis received more recognition as time went on and more relevant discoveries were made. By the 1980s, H. habilis was proposed to have been a human ancestor, directly evolving into Homo erectus which directly led to modern humans. This viewpoint is now debated. Several specimens with insecure species identification were assigned to H. habilis, leading to arguments for splitting, namely into "H. rudolfensis" and "H. gautengensis" of which only the former has received wide support.
  Like contemporary Homo, H. habilis brain size generally varied from 500–900 cc. The body proportions of H. habilis are only known from 2 highly fragmentary skeletons, and is based largely on assuming a similar anatomy to the earlier australopithecines. Because of this, it has also been proposed H. habilis be moved to the genus Australopithecus as Australopithecus habilis.
context_section_description: The first recognised remains—OH 7, partial juvenile skull, hand, and foot bones dating to 1.75 million years ago (mya)—were discovered in Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania, in 1960 by Jonathan Leakey. However, the actual first remains—OH 4, a molar—were discovered by the senior assistant of Louis and Mary Leakey (Jonathan's parents), Heselon Mukiri, in 1959, but this was not realised at the time.  By this time, Louis and Mary had spent 29 years excavating in Olduvai Gorge for early hominin remains, but had instead recovered mainly other animal remains as well as the Oldowan stone tool industry. The industry had been ascribed to Paranthropus boisei (at the time "Zinjanthropus") in 1959 as it was the first and only hominin recovered in the area, but this was revised upon OH 7's discovery. In 1964, Louis, South African palaeoanthropologist Phillip V. Tobias, and British primatologist John R. Napier officially assigned the remains into the genus Homo as, on recommendation by Australian anthropologist Raymond Dart, H. habilis, the specific name meaning "able, handy, mentally skillful, vigorous" in Latin. The specimen's association with the Oldowan (then considered evidence of advanced cognitive ability) was also used as justification for classifying it into Homo. OH 7 was designated the holotype specimen.
  After description, it was hotly debated if H. habilis should be reclassified into Australopithecus africanus (the only other early hominin known at the time), in part because the remains were so old and at the time Homo was presumed to have evolved in Asia (with the australopithecines having no living descendants). Also, the brain size was smaller than what Wilfrid Le Gros Clark proposed in 1955 when considering Homo. The classification H. habilis began to receive wider acceptance as more fossil elements and species were unearthed. In 1983, Tobias proposed that A. africanus was a direct ancestor of Paranthropus and Homo (the two were sister taxa), and that A. africanus evolved into H. habilis which evolved into H. erectus which evolved into modern humans (by a process of cladogenesis). He further said that there was a major evolutionary leap between A. africanus and H. habilis, and thereupon human evolution progressed gradually because H. habilis brain size had nearly doubled compared to australopithecine predecessors. However, OH 24, at the time the oldest H. habilis specimen, was similar to the younger OH 13, which showed there was no evolutionary progression through the lineage.
  Many had accepted Tobias' model and assigned Late Pliocene to Early Pleistocene hominin remains outside the range of Paranthropus and H. erectus into H. habilis. For non-skull elements, this was done on the basis of size as there was a lack of clear diagnostic characteristics. Because of these practices, the range of variation for the species became quite wide, and the terms H. habilis sensu stricto ("in the strict sense") and H. habilis sensu lato ("in the broad sense") were in use to include and exclude, respectively, more discrepant morphs. To address this, in 1985, English palaeoanthropologist Bernard Wood proposed that the comparatively massive skull KNM-ER 1470 from Lake Turkana, Kenya, discovered in 1972 and assigned to H. habilis, actually represented a different species, now referred to as Homo rudolfensis. It is also argued that instead it represents a male specimen whereas other H. habilis specimens are female. It has been suggested that early Homo from South Africa can be variously assigned to H. habilis or H. ergaster / H. erectus,  but in 2010, Australian archaeologist Darren Curoe proposed splitting off South African early Homo into a new species, Homo gautengensis.
  In 1986, OH 62, a fragmentary skeleton, was discovered by American anthropologist Tim D. White in association with H. habilis skull fragments, definitively establishing aspects of H. habilis skeletal anatomy for the first time, and revealing more Australopithecus-like than Homo-like features. Because of this, as well as similarities in dental adaptations, Wood and biological anthr
caption: Cast of the type specimen OH 7
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