Which hominins may have made the oldest stone tools near Lake Turkana?

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An illustration of Homo habilis, an early human ancestor, shown walking upright with a hairy body and ape-like features. A scale beside the figure indicates height in inches and centimeters. — Homo habilis Artist's rendering of *Homo habilis*, which lived from 2 to 1.5 million years ago.

While it was once believed that Homo habilis was the first hominin to create stone tools, evidence from the Lake Turkana region suggests that toolmaking predates the emergence of the genus Homo.1

At the Lomekwi 3 site near Lake Turkana, researchers have discovered primitive stone tools—including hammers, anvils, and cutting implements—that date back approximately 3.3 million years. Because these artifacts significantly predate the earliest known fossils of the genus Homo, scientists suggest that these tools were likely made by an ancestor such as an australopith.213