Michael > June 29th, 2023, 02:32 PM
Quote:The discovery of 330 stone artifacts in Kenya that date back 2.9 million years is throwing light on a key question in human evolution — who first used stone tools?
Scientists unearthed hammerstones, cores and flakes, and the bones of butchered hippos and two teeth belonging to an ancient humanlike ape known as Paranthropus, from eroded slopes along the shore of Kenya’s Lake Victoria at a site called Nyayanga on the Homa Peninsula.
The discovery of a Paranthropus upper and low molar at Nyayanga has undermined the assumption that only humans could make these types of tools.
“While some species of nonhuman primates produce technologies that assist in foraging, humans are uniquely dependent on technology for survival. But the evolutionary origins of this reliance on technology for survival is shrouded in mystery,” said Tom Plummer, a professor of anthropology at Queens College, City University of New York, and coauthor of the research.
Quote:Systematically, rather than haphazardly, produced, the stone implements would have allowed ancient hominins to cut through the thick skin of large animals, slice off pieces of meat and break open bones for marrow, as well as mash plant material to make it more palatable, Plummer explained. Hominins were once a diverse group of humans and humanlike apes.