Today: March 13, 2025
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Extinct human species: how different were they from us?

The Australophithecus species is one of the best-known ancestors of the modern human. The Australopithecus afarensis, in particular, is well known for a skeleton discovered in 1974, which was nicknamed Lucy (depicted).
The Australopithecus afarensis lived between 3 to 3.7 million years ago in East Africa. They had a small frame and a small brain. Their height ranged from between 3.2 ft (96 cm) to 5.5 ft (165 cm), and they weighed between 55 to 141 lbs (25-64 kg).
Fossils have been found in Kenya, Ethiopia, and Tanzania. Australopithecus afarensis ate mostly a vegetarian diet.
Homo habilis
The Homo habilis is the first early human species (with the genus "homo"). They descended from the Australopithecus. The Homo habilis lived approximately 1.4 to 2.3 million years ago in South and East Africa.
Homo habilis
Their appearance was smoother and rounder when compared to Australopithecus, but they were still smaller than modern humans, weighing an average of 75 lbs (34 kg).
Homo habilis
Unlike their ancestors, the Homo habilis also ate meat. They are known for having developed a range of tools, hence their name, which means "handy man."
Homo rudolfensis
There are not many fossils of this archaic human species. Only one cranium was discovered in the Turkana Basin in Kenya, and then a mandible in Malawi. The skull indicates that their brains were larger than those of Homo habilis.
Homo rudolfensis
Scientists still debate whether the Homo rudolfensis had indeed the homo genus or if it was just an Australopithecus with a larger brain. They lived approximately 1.7 million years ago, which means that they would have coexisted with Homo habilis and Homo erectus.

Well done Homo sapiens! Yes, that’s us: the modern human. We avoided extinction and thrived. But this was not the case for any other archaic human species. And if you think that we simply evolved in a direct line, you couldn’t be more wrong. In fact, other species of humans cohabited on our planet at the same time. And yes, we even bred with some of them. However, in the end, we were the only ones who survived.

But how different were these early human species from us, really? Click through the gallery to find out.

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