Pre-human ancestors cooked food

Chef homo habilis?

My favorite web site, physorg, has a story today about homo erectus and other human ancestors. I posted recently about the news that homo erectus sailed to distant islands before humans even existed. Like many of you, I imagine, I found the idea of human precursors sailing the seas exciting and evocative.

Today's story adds to this new image of those who came before us. It seems that homo erectus, the species that preceded homo sapiens (us), was able to cook food! And not only that -- their precursors could cook! Here's an excerpt:

Cooking may actually have originated with other species that also lived in Africa and came just before homo erectus, including homo habilis and homo rudolfensis, the study said.

Hey, humans! Still feeling special?