Homo habilis - the Toolmaker
Origins of Us - Brains
Our unique ability to read minds is thought to be linked to one of the most important idaes to emerge in our evolutionary history - learning to make tools. The ability to make stone tools is one of the identifying features of humans, of our genus Homo. And tools were made by the earliest humans, Homo habilis, going back about two and a half million years.
Homo habilis wasn't much like you or me. He only had a brain half the size of ours. Yet, he's the first ancestor that we know had tools and that's why he's called Homo meaning human.
And these tools enabled him to overcome the challenges orf his environment, These tools allowed them to extend teir own biological capabilities. It was as though they were arming themselves with the tusks, the sharp teeth and the claws that they didn't naturally possess. And, crucially, those tools meant that they could get to a much wider range of food than you'd normally expect an ape to be eating. And, over time, these tools became more complex.
