A study of three bits of bones from the hand ( or carpal bones ) showed that they were similar to the carpal bones of a chimpanzee or an early hominin such as Australopithecus . Tocheri et al . ( 2007 ) ( including Morwood , Larson , and Jungers ) , compared three carpal bones believed to belong to LB1 with carpal bones of modern humans , some earlier hominids and African apes . They concluded that the carpals from the Liang Bua cave resembled ape carpal bones and were significantly different from the bones of H. sapiens , Homo neanderthalensis or even Homo antecessor , and that they were comparable to carpal bones of Australopithecus .