Homo habilis was first discovered in 1959 in the Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania. The nearly complete skull of H. habilis pictured here (inset) was discovered in 1972 at Koobi Fora on the shores of Lake Turkana in Kenya. Its age is estimated at 1.8 million years and its brain capacity at 800 cc. Other H. habilis remains have since been discovered at Olduvai Gorge.
There is considerable variation among the specimens from this era found thus far. Some anthropologists argue that the variations appear to indicate that several separate species of humans existed and competed at the same time in east Africa; other scientists lump all the individuals together in a single species.
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