The ancestors of modern humans used simple stone tools much earlier than previously thought, say archaeologists from the American University of Stony Brook in a study published in the journal “Nature”.
So far, experts started from the premise that culture olduvayense made the first stone tools 2.5 million years ago. The name of this culture comes from the Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, where many fossils and tools were discovered.
However, the new findings near Lake Turkana in the Rift Valley of Kenya, are 800,000 previous years, ie 3.3 million years ago. And they question the idea so far assumed that only the direct ancestors of modern humans had the intellectual capacity to design sharp tools.
The finding provides “information about an unexpected and previously unknown hominid temporary space behavior” , explains Sonia Harmand, Stony Brook University, said in a statement. He adds, these tools provide extensive data on the cognitive development of our ancestors.
As a group of hominid species comprising modern man (Homo sapiens) and their closest evolutionary ancestors defined.
Anthropologists have long considered our relatives of the genus Homo were the first who could make tools. But now signs that even earlier hominid branches were already in a position to do accumulate.
Near the tools were found the skull and other remains of a fossil hominid 3.3 million years old (Kenyanthropus platytops).
How even your family tree is unknown, can not say for sure how the Kenyanthropus platytops links with other hominid species. However, archaeologists believe it could be one of the possible tools producers.
But not only the age of the find, but also the place surprised the researchers. The analysis showed that the region was previously shrubbery and trees. According to the current hypothesis, climate change led to the expansion of savannas and thus completely other wildlife.
The development of the tools was a reaction of the ancestors of modern man to the modified food supply, according to this theory: to remove sharp prepared meat carcasses stones.
But sizes and notches found tools also provide evidence that they were also used in another way, just in a wooded setting with many plants, said Jason Lewis anthropologist at Rutgers University, US state New Jersey. With carved stones could have broken nuts or tubers.
In all, the researchers found 149 stone artifacts in the area called Lomekwi 3 (LOM3), from stones used as hammers to other like an anvil, while all technically less elaborate than those of the culture olduvayense .
The tools, scientists proposed to be baptized with the name “Lomekwian”, can provide information on the evolution of the human brain. Because tools for making a particular motor control manual, which could have emerged 3.3 million years is required.
In a commentary on the study, the archaeologist Erella Hovers of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem warned of jumping to conclusions.
However, the age and appearance of the findings urge to reassess the current models on the interaction of environmental change, human evolution and technological behavior, he said. Anyway, he said, in the case of these tools is far from an isolated event that requires further research.
Also for Faysal Bibi Leibniz Institute for Research on Evolution and Biodiversity in Berlin the study raises questions: the convictions about the connection between climate change and development of walking upright and tools is called into question, he said.
Like every scientific discovery, also the LOM-3 study with all their results will be shredded and attacked during the coming years, he said. “If the study withstands all this, then LOM3 be the place with the oldest tools of our ancestors,” said Bibi, “until someone finds other older”.
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