an extinct species of upright East African hominid having some advanced humanlike characteristics, dated as being from about 1.5 million to more than 2 million years old and proposed as an early form of Homo leading to modern humans.
An extinct species of early humans, known from fossils found in eastern Africa and often considered to be the first member of the genus Homo. It is associated with stone tools of the Oldowan culture. Homo habilis existed between about 2.5 and 1.6 million years ago and overlapped with late australopithecines and other hominids whose relationship to each other and to the later Homo erectus are uncertain.
