Tools tell a more complicated tale of the origin of the human genus

The first animals that could arguably be called “human” made the evolutionary scene a little less than 2 million years ago.

These aren’t folks you’d mistake for modern-day Homo sapiens, or even the GEICO caveman. But they were clearly distinct from their more apelike predecessors. They had bigger brains, for one thing, and walked fully upright — presumably an adaptation to life out in the open rather than up in the trees.