Homo habilis ("handy man") is an extinct species of archaic human from the Early Pleistocene of East and South Africa about 2.3–1.65 million years ago (mya). Upon species description in 1964, H.

Like all of the other Autralopithecus species, A. boisei walked upright. Homo habilis, which actually means "handy man," is apparently the first species to make and use primitive stone tools.

The Leakeys announced it as another new species and named it Homo habilis, meaning “handy man,” because they believed this species was the maker of the stone tools discovered years earlier.