This is evidence that tools were used not only by the ancestors of Homo Sapiens, but also by other branches of early people.
Archaeologists in Kenya have discovered some of the most ancient stone tools ever used by ancient people. Their age is 2.9 million years.
This is evidence that tools were used not only by the ancestors of Homo Sapiens, but also by other branches of early people.
About it informs BBC.
According to the researchers, the tools were used to dismember large animals such as hippopotamuses, as well as chopping plants, root crops, and fruits.
Two large fossil teeth found at the site belong to an extinct species of anthropoid known as Paranthropus.
Previously, scientists believed that the tools of the Olduvai culture (the most primitive stone-working culture) were used only by the ancestors of Homo sapiens, a group that includes our species and our closest relatives.
However, no fossils of Homo Sapien have been found at the excavation site on the Homa Peninsula in western Kenya.
Scientists have identified two strong teeth belonging to a member of the Paranthropus genus, which combined the features of an ape and a man, and next to them – 330 stone tools.
“These tools can crush food better than an elephant’s tooth and cut it faster than a lion’s tusk,” said Professor Rick Potts of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, senior author of the study. as if early humans were given an extra set of teeth outside their bodies, it opened up a new food choice for our ancestors in the African shroud.”
“The discovery of these tools next to the remains of Paranthropus again raises the question of who invented the oldest tools of the Olduvai culture. It is possible that not only Homo, but also other types of hominids used this technology,” says anthropologist Thomas Plummer from Queens College in New York. He is the lead author of a study published in the journal Science.
The researchers say the latest find of Olduvai tools shows they were a significant improvement over earlier rough stone tools that date back 3.3 million years and predate the emergence of the genus Homo.
Other humanoid species that existed at the time included Australopithecus. This species became known thanks to the fossilized remains of a man, which were discovered in 1974 in northern Ethiopia and named Lucy.
Recall that in Israel, archaeologists have unearthed a luxurious old estate in the desert.
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