Answer:
In 2015 a team of international scientists has discovered in Africa modern hand-bone fossils - like ours - the oldest known to date from over 1.84 million years.
The evolution of hands is vitally important to understanding how we become humans. The fossils were found in Olduvai Canyon, Tanzania, and belong to a phalanx of the left little finger of an individual measuring between 1.70 and 1.80 meters.
The discovery not only demonstrates that 1.84 million years ago there was already a creature with a modern hand, but also that this creature was larger than any other hominid prior or contemporary to this species. It is not certain which species the individual belonged to because teeth were found. They know that the hand did not belong to an individual of the Homo habilis species or Paranthropus boisei.
According to this work, the characteristics of the new individual fit very well with those of Homo erectus that coexisted in Africa with the other two species.
Until then, the identified Homo erectus fossils in Africa dated 1.5 million years ago. These new ones are almost 400 thousand years older, but the study does not rule out that it may be a creature that is not yet known, but which is very similar to Homo erectus.
In recent years, researchers have gathered evidence that led to the understanding that the Olduvai deposit was a central place where hominids carried carcasses of up to 350 kilograms obtained by hunting, but it was doubtful that Homo habilis could do so, for measuring only one meter.
