Posted on 09/17/2025 9:01:29 AM PDT by Red Badger
Leopard tooth marks were found on this Homo habilis jawbone.
Image credit: Vegara-Riquelme et al., Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences (2025)
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.
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. In the same region, researchers have found evidence that prehistoric hominins began butchering the carcasses of animals killed by big cats and other predators.
This suggests that H. habilis may have developed the ability to defend itself from these carnivores while also learning to outsmart them and consume their kills. In contrast, earlier hominins like Paranthropus and the Australopithecines are known to have been devoured by leopards, lions, and other large felids.
To test this theory, researchers re-analyzed the remains of two H. habilis individuals from Olduvai Gorge - including the 1.85-million-year-old holotype specimen that defines the species’ morphology - both of which show signs of having been gnawed on by animals. Previously, researchers had suggested that these bite marks reflected hyenas scavenging on the hominins’ corpses rather than active predation.
However, using AI, the study authors were able to assign the tooth marks to leopards, with a greater than 90 percent probability. This, in turn, suggests that the two H. habilis specimens were in fact hunted by these big cats.
Homo habilis being eaten by leopard - The researchers used AI to create this image of Homo habilis being eaten by a leopard. Image credit: Vegara-Riquelme et al.
“If we take both individuals as random representatives of the larger H. habilis population that lived at Olduvai, their convergent signal of having been preyed on by leopards would indicate the inability of this taxon to cope with the predation risks of a medium-sized carnivore like a leopard,” write the researchers.
“The implications of this are major, since it shows that H. habilis was still more of a prey than a predator,” they continue.
Speaking to IFLScience, study author Manuel Domínguez-Rodrigo explained that “for some time we have been depicting Homo habilis as the first conqueror of the trophic pyramid, as the scavenger-hunter, fending carnivores off from their kills.”
“But we have identified that these Homo habilis [specimens] actually were eaten by leopards in the same fashion as the previous Australopithecines,” he adds. “So it's actually it's kind of dethroning Homo habilis and putting him at the same scale as other Australopithecines.”
Yet if H. habilis wasn’t able to muscle in on the prey of big cats, then which human species was the first to ascend this throne? According to the researchers, the most probable candidate is Homo erectus, which existed around the same time as H. habilis and was more adapted to life on the ground rather than in trees.
They therefore speculate that H. erectus might have been better equipped to fend off leopards and other carnivores, and could therefore be responsible for the earliest signs of butchery on stolen carcasses.
The study is published in the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.
The part in the middle is always thinking about sex.
I have no idea how habilis came out TWICE as manilla.
But, AI. It must be true.
/s
At least 400 from one leopard in India.
I heard recently that the “two sides of the brain” characteristic in at least some animals allows them to go into sleep mode with half their body, and be aware of their surroundings with the other half, trading off the states of the halves at intervals. Some birds, for instance, stand on one leg at a time when sleeping - it could be that they’re asleep on the retracted-leg side of the body.
Young men at work in offices and in clubs are still hunted by cougars.
In Africa and Asia.
Leopards won't eat clowns because they taste funny.
They won’t eat your ‘dad’ joke either. heh heh ;)
The Homo Habilis’ being eaten was *named* Cheetah.
I have more.
LOL Now I am craving Cheetos.
Stop! you win! :)
😎
The first I read about Habilis many years ago described them as having to dodge big cats and hyenas and such.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
