All humans today are members of the modern human species Homo sapiens and are Latin for “knowing.” But we are far from the only person ever existed. Fossils are increasingly revealing about early humans in the genus Homo (ancestors like Homoerectus (the Latin for “upright man”).
Scientists currently recognize more than 12 species of the genus HOMO. So, exactly what was the first human species? The answer is, after all, not transparent.
Fossil discoveries in Morocco reveal that anatomically modern humans emerged at least 300,000 years ago. However, the oldest human scientists who are clearly known are called homohabilis, or “convenient men.”
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However, previous fossils suggest that other homo species may be predecessors of H. habilis. The rarity of early human fossils makes it difficult to know whether the unusual specimen is a new species or simply an atypical member of a known species. Additionally, evolution can be step-by-step, making it difficult to identify new species when they appear, especially when fossils contain mixed features of different species.
“The evolutionary process is continuous, but the labels we place for convenience are static,” Tim D. White, a paleontologist at the University of California, Berkeley, told Live Science.
Related: Why did Homo Sapiens last longer than all other human species?
Early Homo
Most evolutionary theories are H. It suggests that Habilis developed from an early genus of a primate named Australopithecus. The fossil was first discovered in South Africa, and is the Latin word for “Southern Ape.”
Various species of Australopithecus lived around 4.4 million to 1.4 million years ago. H. habilis may have evolved directly from the species Australopithecus afarensis. The most famous example is Lucy, which was excavated in Khadar, Ethiopia in 1974.
Fossils of our genus are usually distinguished from the Australopithecus fossils by their distinct small teeth and relatively large brains of the homo, leading to greater use of stone tools.
However, White pointed out that small teeth and large brain-like properties must have appeared occasionally in the early homo-evolved Australopithecus populations.
“If you had an Australian Lopithecus woman, she would have baptized her child homos at that point, she hadn’t given birth,” he said.
As a result, there is no fixed point at the time HOMO was born. Instead, the Homo genus appeared about 2 million to 3 million years ago, White said.
Evolve in Africa
Since the 1970s, researchers in Africa have been H. We discovered a fossil caused by Homo Rudolfensis, another ancient species that challenges the idea that habilis is the earliest homo.
H. rudolfensis is physically much larger, H. It appears that it had a larger brain and flat face structure than Habilis, which may have made it look like a modern human.
The fossil is H. He is about the same age as Habilis and is 2.4 million years old. According to the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, “There is only one really good fossil for this homorudolfensis,” so scientists don’t know if H. rudolfensis is a rare H. habilis or an austrolopititicus with a larger brain.
Paleontologist Rick Potts, who leads the Smithsonian Institute’s Human Origins program, told Live Science that even older fossils from Africa seem to be in the genus Homo, preceded both of these species.
The oldest of these fossils is about 2.8 million years old, but they are only fragments, some jawbone and some teeth. Therefore, it is not sufficient to establish whether they came from different, unknown homo species. A 2025 study discovered 2.59 million and additional teeth up to 2.78 million years ago, which could also belong to this mysterious early homo species.
Therefore, the first human species may not have been discovered yet. “There is a lot of excitement, but there is also a lot of uncertainty about trying to discover more about the origins of the Homo genus,” Potts said.
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