There's a good chance it was a tiny little cannibalistic tree swinger, but the newly identified Homo gautengensis is family, according to a new study. Thought to have used tools—and possibly fire—the creature is the oldest named species in the human genus, Homo, study author Darren Curnoe says. The new-species designation is based on two-million- to 800,000-year-old fossil-skull pieces, jaws, teeth, and other bones found at the Sterkfontein caves complex in South Africa's Gauteng Province. Though only fragmentary fossils from about six individuals have been found, upright-walking H. gautengensis is thought to have stood a squat three and a half feet (one meter) tall and weighed about 110 pounds (50 kilograms), according to Curnoe, an anthropologist at the University of New South Wales, Australia.
