Shafaqna English | by Farinaz Parnianifard, New research suggests Homo habilis long believed to be the first tool-using hunter may have been hunted by big cats rather than leading the food chain, according to the Conversation.
A new study using artificial intelligence to analyze tooth marks on 1.85-million-year-old fossils from Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania, has found that injuries on Homo habilis bones are consistent with leopard attacks. The findings challenge decades of assumptions that the species was the earliest top predator and toolmaker in the human lineage.
Researchers now argue that the more advanced Homo erectus — older, larger-bodied and more adapted to life on the ground — may instead have been responsible for early hunting and stone-tool sites once attributed to H. habilis.
The discovery adds to growing evidence that the human evolutionary tree was more complex than previously thought, raising new questions about which ancient species first shaped the behaviors that define humanity.
Source: Conversation