But some now think it could have been an earlier hominid known as Homo habilis.

BBC: NEWS | Science/Nature | Team widens search for 'Hobbits'

But its previous attribution was made because it does not look much like Homo habilis either.

ECONOMIST: Human ancestry has just got more complicated

Some palaeontologists see a single, variable species called Homo habilis.

ECONOMIST: Human ancestry has just got more complicated

And the humanlike creatures known as australopithecines are thought to have had a similar developmental trajectory to chimpanzees - faster than later hominin species such as Homo habilis and erectus.

BBC: Hi-tech scans reveal brain of human 'ancestor'

Homo habilis, the first human species, is never mentioned.

ECONOMIST: How man has learned, through history, about his habitat

It seems then that at least two, and possibly three species of Homo were stalking the east-African savannah a little under 2m years ago: habilis, rudolfensis and something as yet unnamed.

ECONOMIST: Human ancestry has just got more complicated