Along the shores of Lake Victoria in Africa , archeologists have bring out the sure-enough ever evidence of human ancestors using tools to butcher the nitty-gritty of ancient hippopotamuses . Dating to roughly 2.9 million years sure-enough , the Stone Age toolkit designate the earliest discover evidence of hominins chowing down on very big animals . It also raises head about which ancienthuman ancestorwas the first to craft tools .
The discoveries were made during an archeological dig in Nyayanga , located on the Homa Peninsula of western Kenya . Here , they find at least three different types of rock tools – hammerstones , cores , and flakes – which were used to cut , scrape , and pound both animals and plant .
Along with the toolkit , they find the oldest discovered fossilized teeth of aParanthropus . Considered an indirect cousin ofHomo sapiens , this extinct hominin would have perhaps depend a bit like a modest Gorilla gorilla that walk on two leg . This , the research worker say , raises some intriguing questions about who made these pecker .
Examples of an Oldowan percussive tool, core and flakes from the Nyayanga site show they had been used to cut meat and pound plants. Image credit: T.W. Plummer, J.S. Oliver, and E. M. Finestone, Homa Peninsula Paleoanthropology Project
The style of the tools is knownOldowan , which describes very dim-witted other rock shaft that were made with one or a few flakes come off off with another rock . As simple as they may be , the innovation of this engineering was a major milestone in the storey of ancient hominins .
“ With these tools you may crush well than an elephant ’s grinder can and edit well than a lion ’s canine can . Oldowan technology was like all of a sudden acquire a firebrand - new set of teeth outside your torso , and it opened up a new variety of foods on the African savannah to our ancestors , ” Rick Potts , older study author and the National Museum of Natural History ’s Peter Buck Chair of Human Origins , say in astatement .
Prior to this discovery , the oldest Oldowan stone peter were dated to 2.6 million years old and found in Ledi - Geraru , Ethiopia . This novel enquiry suggests that Oldowan engineering science emerged way sooner than thinking and was likely to be more pervasive than antecedently apprise .
Paranthropus molars recovered from Nyayanga site. Image credit: S. E. Bailey, Homa Peninsula Paleoanthropology Project
“ This is one of the oldest if not the oldest example of Oldowan technology,“added Thomas Plummer of Queens College and a inquiry associate degree in the scientific squad of the Smithsonian ’s Human Origins Program .
" This shows the toolkit was more widely distributed at an earlier date than hoi polloi agnize , and that it was used to litigate a wide salmagundi of plant and animal tissue . We do n’t know for sure what the adaptive significance was but the variety of use suggests it was important to these hominins . ”
The site also held at least 1,776 brute bone , namely hippopotamids and bovid . With this regalia of artifacts unwrap in Nyayanga , the researchers are positive they ’ve stumbled on the website of a prehistorical stumbler workshop where remote members of the human crime syndicate prepare and huntedmegafaunafor dinner .
It would be another 2 million years before ancient homininslearned to moderate fire , so all of this food would have been served raw . The researchers opine the creature might have been used to poke the heart into an easy - to - eat mush , a moment like a hippo tartare .
“ The assumption among investigator has long been that only the genusHomo , to which man go , was capable of cook stone tools , ” Potts explained . “ But bump Paranthropus alongside these stone creature open up a fascinating whodunnit . ”
The fresh study was published today in the journalScience .
