A 1.5-million-year-old set of hand bones, unearthed from a lake bed in Kenya, are the first to suggest an ape-like cousin of humans could use tools.

While the owner of the hands was a relative of modern humans called Paranthropus boisei , it was not a direct ancestor of ours.

But, according to a study led by researchers in the US and Kenya and published in Nature , the individual may have used tools, an ability some archaeologists doubted possible in this ancient species.

Tool use is a key milestone in the evolution of humans, study lead author and Stony Brook University anthropologist Carrie Mongle said.

"It represents a turning point in our behavioural and cognitive complexity."

Fossils in a Kenyan lake bed

The hand bones were part of a collection of fossils discovered in 201

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