Homo habilis (1.4–2.4 million years ago, or Mya) is the earliest named species of Homo. You would encounter H. habilis walking around bipedally on open grasslands in Eastern and Southern Africa, but this species would sometimes climb into trees to reach foods.

For example, H. habilis was undoubtedly bipedal, with an adducted big toe (the big toe is in line with the other toes, not splayed out to the side, as in living apes) and well-defined arches in the foot (structures in the foot formed by bone and strengthened by tendons and ligaments that allow the foot to support the weight of the body and act as shock-absorbers during bipedal walking) like humans.

With Homo habilis an advanced grasping-capable hand was accompanied by facultative bipedalism, possibly implying, assuming a co-opted evolutionary relationship exists, that the later [ = "latter" -S.K.] resulted from the former as obligate bipedalism was yet to follow. Walking may have been a byproduct of busy hands and not vice versa.