The hands of hominins that lived about 3 million years ago were capable of clutching tools.

Credit: T. L. Kivell

The first tool-using hominin is widely believed to have been Homo habilis — known as the handyman — in part because its appearance in the fossil record 2.4 million years ago coincides with the earliest stone tools. To search for earlier signs of tool use, a team led by Matthew Skinner and Tracey Kivell at the University of Kent, UK, analysed the composition of the hand bones of Australopithecus africanus fossils from South Africa, which are between 2 million and 3 million years old. The ends of A. africanus metacarpal hand bones (pictured), which form the palm, resembled those of later toolmakers such as Homo sapiens and Neanderthals.

The team concludes that A. africanus could forcefully grip objects using an opposable thumb.

Science 347, 395–399 (2015)