Lab Grown Bones To Save Lives
The x-rays show a patient's fractured wrist bone. Reuters

A new research found that the ability for a human to have a powerful grip as well as the performance of precise movements with the hand had evolved 500,000 years before what was originally thought. This meant that the humans, for a long period of time, have had the upper hand. The research was published in the journal Science.

According to The Age, archaeologists observed the internal bone structure of an early ancestor from Africa. It was found that the species that lived between 2.04 to 3.03 million years ago called Australopithecus africanus were most likely a primitive handymen though earlier the species were not considered to be toolmaker.

Matthew Skinner, a British archaeologist and senior lecturer in Evolutionary Anthropology at the University of Kent, and his team examined the pattern of tiny elements that acted as rods, beams or struts in the hand bones of a few of the Australopithecus africanus.

The absence of stone tools in the fossil record until 2.6 million years ago led to the suggestion that the Australopiths lacked the precision to use the stone tools and hold objects. But it was found that the group displayed many features that were similar to that of the human hand like opposable thumbs.

The traits of having a powerful grip and performing precise movements, it is said, had developed around the time when early humans go down the trees and began the use of tools, unlike the apes. A topic of debate for decades had been the timing of the transition. It was assumed, since the 1950s, that the Homo habilis, species that lived during the Gelasian Pleistocene period about 1.44 to 2.33 million years ago, were the first early toolmakers.

Darren Curnoe is an archaeologist not associated with the study and the associate professor of the School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Studies at the University of New South Wales. He said that the archaeologists were confident that a few of the Australopiths used stone tools because of the arrangement in the internal structure of their bones. He explained that the discovery would lead to the changes of the views of archaeologists regarding the early African ancestors.

Contact the writer: afza.kandrikar@gmail.com