It is a finger bone discovered in Tanzania that has much to say, he speaks of an ancestor of man who would have been equipped with a “modern” hand there are 1.8 million years . A hand that would have allowed all sorts of manipulations.
This is the oldest modern hand bones known to date, says a study published online Tuesday in the British journal Nature Communications. This phalanx was recently discovered on the rich prehistoric site of Olduvai Gorge in northern Tanzania, by a team of researchers led by Manuel Domínguez-Rodrigo, from the Institute of developments in Africa with headquarters in . Madrid
It shows that the owner of this phalanx, an adult called OH 86 coexisted there with the Paranthropus boisei -a robuste- Australopithecus and Homo habilis with – “clever man” – which knew how to make primitive tools of stone. OH 86 could be an ancestor of Homo erectus – “upright man” – or even a Homo Erectus, fossil representative of the genus Homo -apparu there are about 1.7 million years-ahead Mr. Dominguez-Rodrigo.
If researchers are enthusiastic about the piece of bone, it is because the hand is one of the most important anatomical features of the human species. “Our hand has evolved to allow us all sorts of gestures and manipulations, more than any other primate,” explains Dominguez-Rodrigo. “It is this ability to precisely manipulate that interacted with our brain and allowed the development of our intelligence, mainly thanks to the invention and use of tools,” he said.
When hominids stopped moving on all fours to become bipeds there are about six million years, that released their hands. The thumb has evolved, he grew up. But the phalanges of the hand of hominids are clearly curved, helping them to climb trees.
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