Ancient people learned to use the thumb 2 million years ago

Thumbs, which allowed for a firm grip and improved the ability to manipulate objects,

given to ancient Homo or a closely related linehominids have an evolutionary advantage over their contemporaries. Scientists from the University of Tübingen. Eberhard Karl in Germany discovered that the now extinct Australopithecus made and used stone tools, but did not have human-like thumb abilities, which limited its tool-making capabilities.

Researchers have modeled how the key muscleaffects thumb movement in 12 previously found hominid fossils, five 19th century humans, and five chimpanzees. A pair of thumb fossils about 2 million years old from South Africa show agility and strength on par with modern human thumbs.

Scientists disagree on whetherwhether the finds in South Africa belong to early Homo or Paranthropus robustus, a species at the dead-end branch of hominid evolution. But the thumb dexterity of these ancient fossils is comparable to that of Homo species that emerged about 335,000 years ago. These include Neanderthals from Europe and the Middle East, as well as the South African hominid Homo naledi.

For comparison, Homo or P.robustus had thumbs that were more powerful than those of three million-year-old Australopithecus species, two of which were previously thought to have human-like hands.

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Paranthropus robustus, massive Paranthropus -a species of fossil great ape discovered in South Africa in 1938 by South African doctor and paleontologist Robert Broome. The remains have been dated to between 2 and 1.2 million years ago. They are considered a dead-end branch of human evolution related to Australopithecines.

Homo naledi, star man - fossilspecies of people of the hominin tribe. The remains of H. naledi were first found in 2013 in the Cradle of Humankind, South Africa, in a cave called Rising Star by a team led by paleoanthropologist Lee Berger from the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa.