Scientists who studied Homo Naledi, newly found fossils of ancient human ancestor, said Homo Naledi may have been skillfully using tools and even had a walk very much similar to that of present humans.

The team of researchers associated with studying the fossils on Tuesday said foot and hand anatomy of the fossils shared several characteristics with that of humans but it even had some primitive traits that are useful for tree climbing.

Scientists said the new research offers fresh insight into a creature that is providing valuable clues about human evolution.

Paleoanthropologist Tracy Kivell of Britain's University of Kent said wrist bones and thumb of Homo Naledi showed features that were common to that of modern people and Neanderthals and indicated powerful grasping and the ability to employ stone tools.

Kivell said it has strongly curved fingers instead of having the straight ones as that of Neanderthals, which suggest that it also regularly used its hands for climbing.

On the other hand, its foot was very much like today’s modern humans. Researchers said that particularly in ankle joint anatomy, the presence of a non-grasping big toe and the proportions of the region from the ankle to toes appeared very much like ours.

Dartmouth College anthropologist Jeremy DeSilva said such an anatomy was well adopted for long distance walking and perhaps running. “The legs are long, the knees are like ours, the feet are human-like. Homo Naledi walked a lot like us”, DeSilva said.

“It shows we have a much greater diversity in the fossils of human ancestors than we thought possible,” Tracy Kivell, a paleoanthropologist from the University of Kent who’s part of the team studying the bones, told the Guardian.

“That combination was really quite surprising,” Dr. Kivell told the Guardian. “It shows you can have a hand that is quite specialized for manipulation and tool use in a species that is still using its hands for climbing, and moving around in the trees or on rocks.”