TÜBINGEN, GERMANY -- Cosmos Magazine reports that hominins may have been able to use tools earlier than previously thought, based upon a new study of early hominin finger bones. The oldest known stone tools have been dated to about 3.3 million years ago, but it is not known what hominin might have made or used them. Researchers led by Jana Kunze of the University of Tübingen examined the places where muscles attached to bones on the hands of Australopithecus afarensis, who lived between 3.9 and 2.9 million years ago; A. africanus, who lived between 3.3 and 2.1 million years ago; and A. sediba, who lived about 1.98 million years ago. The characteristics of the muscle attachments on the hands of these early hominins were then compared to those of modern humans, Neanderthals, gorillas, chimpanzees, and orangutans. The study determined that A. afarensis and A. sediba may have been able to manipulate objects in a manner similar to that of modern humans based upon their anatomy. The attachment features on the hand bones of A. africanus, however, were found to be a mixture of human and ape characteristics. Read the original scholarly article about this research in Journal of Human Evolution. For more on A. sediba, go to "The Human Mosaic."