Hand and foot fossils found in Kenya for ancient human relative

Researchers have unearthed near Lake Turkana in northern Kenya fossils of hand and foot bones belonging to an extinct human relative dating to 1.52 million years ago, revealing that this species would have been able to grasp and manipulate objects such as stone tools and was fully bipedal.

The fossils represented the first hand and foot bones unambiguously attributed to the species Paranthropus boisei. The researchers discovered a partial skeleton that included most of the hand, three foot bones, most of the teeth, a partial forearm bone and skull fragments.

Considering the fragmentary nature of previous fossils of this species, the new discovery was revelatory.

This species was a member of the human evolutionary lineage, essentially a cousin of Homo sapiens, which evolved much later.