Oct 06, 2015 02:36 PM EDT By Russell Westerholm, UniversityHerald Reporter

In a pair of parallel studies on an ancient human ancestor's hands and feet, researchers determined Homo naledi was a versatile traveler.

According to BBC News, the scientists published two papers in the journal Nature Communications detailing the remains of the ancient human ancestor that were found in a cave in South Africa - one on naledi's hands and the other on its feet. The hands and feet indicate naledi traveled on foot and could also climb trees.

"Homo naledi's foot is far more advanced than other parts of its body, for instance, its shoulders, skull, or pelvis," William Harcourt-Smith, an assistant professor at CUNY's Lehman College who led the study on naledi's foot, said in a press release. "Quite obviously, having a very human-like foot was advantageous to this creature because it was the foot that lost its primitive, or ape-like, features first. That can tell us a great deal in terms of the selective pressures this species was facing."

Like modern man and the late Neanderthal, naledi could also fashion and use tools.

"The features that we see particularly in the wrist, we've only ever found in Neanderthals and [modern humans], and we know that those are committed to using tools," Tracy Kivell, a Kent University researcher who led the study on naledi's hand, told BBC News.

"They make tools, complex tools, and use them all the time, enough so that it's actually changed their morphology.

"Perhaps naledi was using tools that were made out of different materials or doing some other forceful, precision-grip manipulations, but the most straight-forward explanation is that naledi is making and using tools."

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