Around 2 million years ago, prehistoric humans in East Africa turned the tables on the carnivores that had previously terrorized them, learning not only to fend off these predators but also steal their kills, thus replacing them at the very top of the food chain. Generally, the ancient species Homo habilis is credited with making this trophic leap, yet new research suggests that this extinct hominin was actually hunted by leopards and may therefore have been more prey than predator. The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.

Considered by many anthropologists to be the first truly human species , H. habilis is thought to have created the earliest stone tools – known as the Oldowan Toolkit – in Tanzania’s Olduvai Gorge. I

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