Rival human species could have invented first tools

MODERN humans may not have created the first complex tools, according to scientists.

They claim to have discovered that another species of primitive man – Homo naledi – existed a lot more recently than previously thought.

Instead of being in Africa one or two million years ago, they lived between 335,000 and 236,000 years ago, overlapping with our ancestors – Homo sapiens.

The revelation came after human fossils (pictured) found in a cave in South Africa were dated by measuring natural radiation. The remains showed that Homo naledi had the hands of a capable toolmaker along with being only 5ft tall with chimpanzee- like shoulders, long arms and a brain the size of an orange.

Its existence at the same time as Homo sapiens casts doubt on which species made the sharp stone tools which followed on from hand axes and were attached to spears.

Professor Lee Berger, from Witwatersrand University, South Africa, said: ‘We can no longer assume we know which species made which tools, or even assume that it was modern humans that were the innovators of some of these critical breakthroughs.

‘If there is one other species out there that shared the world with “modern humans” in Africa, it is very likely there are others. We just need to find them.’

Professor Paul Dirks, from James Cook University, Australia, has also been examining the fossils. ‘The new dating opens up all sorts of possibilities for an interchange of tool use, cultural activities and behaviours between Homo naledi and Homo sapiens,’ he said.

‘It means that a primitive hominid persisted in Africa for a very substantial period of time, well beyond what paleoanthropologists predicted.’

The existence of Homo naledi was announced in 2015 when the remains of two adults and a child were found almost 100ft underground. They included one of the most complete skeletons ever found, missing only its lower legs and feet.