<Li> Kenyanthropus (3--2.7 Ma), with species K. platyops; </Li> <Li> Paranthropus (3--1.2 Ma), with species P. aethiopicus, P. boisei, and P. robustus </Li> <P> A new proposed species Australopithecus deyiremeda is claimed to have been discovered living at the same time period of Au . afarensis . There is debate if Au . deyiremeda is a new species or is Au . afarensis . Australopithecus prometheus, otherwise known as Little Foot has recently been dated at 3.67 million years old through a new dating technique, making the Australopithecus genus as old as the Afarensis . Given the opposable big toe found on Little Foot, it seems that he was a good climber, and it is thought given the night predators of the region, he probably, like gorillas and chimpanzees, built a nesting platform at night, in the trees . </P> <P> The earliest documented representative of the genus Homo is Homo habilis, which evolved around 2.8 million years ago, and is arguably the earliest species for which there is positive evidence of the use of stone tools . The brains of these early hominins were about the same size as that of a chimpanzee, although it has been suggested that this was the time in which the human SRGAP2 gene doubled, producing a more rapid wiring of the frontal cortex . During the next million years a process of rapid encephalization occurred, and with the arrival of Homo erectus and Homo ergaster in the fossil record, cranial capacity had doubled to 850 cm . (Such an increase in human brain size is equivalent to each generation having 125,000 more neurons than their parents .) It is believed that Homo erectus and Homo ergaster were the first to use fire and complex tools, and were the first of the hominin line to leave Africa, spreading throughout Africa, Asia, and Europe between 1.3 to 1.8 million years ago . </P>

Scientific names of the stages of human development