Fossilized hand samples of ancient humans reveal surprising secrets

The first fossil hand found of the ancient human Paranthropus boisei has been decoded by experts and caused a big surprise.

In a new study published in the journal Nature, scientists examined and analyzed the first fossilized hand ever found of the ancient human Paranthropus boisei and discovered that they had surprisingly large, yet highly dexterous, hands. Photo: Louise Leakey.

Paleoanthropologist Louise Leakey of Stony Brook University and the Turkana Basin Institute (TBI) and colleagues found the fossilized hand at Koobi Fora, an area on the eastern edge of Lake Turkana. The specimen is more than 1.52 million years old. Photo: C. Mongle.

Before this discovery , researchers knew that Paranthropus boisei had large bones, strong jaws and teeth for chewing. However, they knew very little about Paranthropus boisei from the neck down because no complete fossils had been found. Photo: Matt Tocheri.

The discovery of a fossilized hand belonging to Paranthropus boisei suggests that it had a long thumb, straight fingers, and a flexible little finger, which would have provided a strong grip similar to the way modern humans hold a hammer. This would have allowed it to easily split open tough plant matter, removing indigestible matter. Photo: P.PLAILLY/E.DAYNES/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY.

The team also speculates that Paranthropus boisei's diet consisted mainly of grasses and mollusks. Photo: Nachosan / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Other features of the hand, such as the large shape of the finger bones, of Paranthropus boisei are very gorilla-like. Photo: Roman Yevseyev.

According to the research team, Paranthropus boisei also had the ability to make tools. This adds to the evidence that this species had very skillful hands like species of the genus Homo. Photo: dctim1/Flickr.

Paranthropus boisei lived in East Africa between 1.3 and 2.6 million years ago, at the same time as at least three other ancient human species: Homo habilis, Homo rudolfensis and Homo erectus. Photo: see.leeds.ac.uk.

Previously, some researchers believed that only species of the genus Homo were capable of making stone tools. The discovery of the hand fossil shows that Paranthropus boisei could make and use stone tools as well as other Homo species of the time. Photo: Wikimedia: Jonathan Chen, Paranthropus boisei model, CC BY-SA 4.0, Emőke Dénes, Homo erectus model, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Readers are invited to watch the video : Behind the success of scientists. Source: VTV24.

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