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Homo habilis totally altered that view. Researchers
such as Bernard Wood and Loring Brace
The fact that Australopithecus is ne-
said that the term Australopithecus habi-
arly identical to chimpanzees in terms of
lis or “tool-using South African ape”
their skull and skeletal structures, plus
should be employed instead of Homo
the emergence of concrete evidence that
habilis, which means “tool-using hu-
demolished the claim that these creatu-
man,” because H. habilis shared a great
res walked upright, left evolutionist pa-
many characteristics with the apes
leoanthropologists in a rather difficult
known as Australopithecus.
position. Because Australopithecus is
Just like Australopithecus, it had a
followed by Homo erectus in the imagi-
long-armed, short-legged and ape-like
nary course of evolution.
skeletal structure. Its fingers and toes
As can be seen from the use of the
were suited to climbing. Its jaw structure
term Homo in its Latin name, Homo ha-
completely resembles that of modern
bilis is a human group and has a comple-
apes. Its 500-cubic-centimeter brain size
tely upright skeleton. Its skull volume is
was the best indication that it was in fact
up to double that of Australopithecus.
an ape. In short, H. habilis, portrayed as
According to the imaginary family tree,
a separate species by some evolutionists,
H. erectus with a skeleton identical to
was actually an ape just like all other
that of modern man, coming immedia-
Australopithecus.
tely after Australopithecus, a species of
Detailed analyses conducted by the
ape similar to chimpanzees, cannot be
explained in terms of the theory of evo-
lution. Therefore, links or transitional
forms are necessary. It is this difficulty
that gave rise to the concept of Homo
habilis.
In the 1960s, the Leakeys, the fossil
hunter family, proposed the classificati-
on Homo habilis. According to the Lea-
keys, this new species classified as H.
habilis possessed the ability to walk up-
right, had a relatively large brain, and
was able to use tools made of stone and
wood. It may therefore have been an an-
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THE EVOLUTION IMPASSE I