Scientists have found the oldest Oldowan butchery tools—long seen as a hallmark of our own genus—with fossils of a very different human relative.
As thunder boomed and dark rain clouds gathered on the last day of the field season in Kenya in 2017, paleoanthropologist Emma Finestone was rushing to record the location of fossils while excavators were hoisting an ancient hippo skeleton out of the ground. “I was worried she would get struck by lightning because she was on top of a hill,” says Tom Plummer, a paleoanthropologist at Queens College who led the excavation at Nyayanga, near Lake Victoria.
Finestone received a shock of a different kind as the hippo was removed. Beneath it, Blasto Onyango, head preparator of the National Museums of Kenya, found a huge hominin molar. It lay intermingled with hammerstones and sharp flakes that Finestone recognized as early Oldowan tools, an ancient technological breakthrough long thought to be a defining hallmark of our genus, , known for its huge teeth and crested ape-size skull, not toolmaking skills.
As more Oldowan tools were discovered across Africa and beyond, most researchers concluded that their appearance coincided with
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Early hominin Paranthropus may have used sophisticated stone toolsStone tools discovered in Kenya are the oldest Oldowan-type implements found, dating back at least 2.6 million years, and they may have been made by our relative Paranthropus
Read more »
3-million-year-old stone tools found, and our ancestors likely didn’t make themArchaeologists have discovered distinctive stone tools at a site in southwestern Kenya that may be up to three million years old, making them the oldest of their kind
Read more »
Scientists Grew Tiny, Partially Functional Human Intestines Inside MiceUsing stem cells to grow minitiarized intestinal tissue called organoids, the researchers recreated a human immune response inside mice.
Read more »
Hominids used stone toolkits to butcher animals earlier than once thoughtFinds in Kenya push Oldowan tool use back to around 2.9 million years ago, roughly 300,000 years earlier than previous evidence.
Read more »
Scientists Develop Compound That Kills So Efficiently They Named It After Keanu ReevesThe molecules kill some types of fungi 'so efficiently that we named them after Keanu Reeves,' said the lead author of the study.
Read more »
This baby turtle surprised scientists by swimming against the currentSatellite transmitters help Cristina Miranda to understand the movements and habitats of endangered hawksbill sea turtles in the eastern Pacific Ocean.
Read more »