Scientists Debate When Human Ancestors Picked Up Stone Tools
Humanity's ancestors might not have developed stone tools for butchering animals as early as recent findings suggested, researchers contend.
However, not all scientists agree with these new arguments.
Earlier this year, paleoanthropologist Zeray Alemseged at the California Academy of Sciences at San Francisco and an international team of scientists revealed what seemed to be the earliest known evidence of stone tool use by human ancestors. The rib of a cow-sized animal and the thigh bone of a goat-sized antelope discovered buried in shallow, sandy soil in Dikika, Ethiopia, were marked with cuts, hinting that stone implements were used to remove flesh from the bones and extract the marrow.
These bones date back at least 3.4 million years, pre-dating evidence for stone tool use from Gona, Ethiopia, by some 800,000 years. Their discoverers suggested they might well have been made by Australopithecus afarensis, the extinct species that the fossil "Lucy" belonged to, which was known to live in Dikika.
Now, however, a different international team of scientists contends the marks seen on those bones were not made by ancient butchers. Instead, they suggest they are likely scratches made by animals trampling across the bones....
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However, not all scientists agree with these new arguments.
Earlier this year, paleoanthropologist Zeray Alemseged at the California Academy of Sciences at San Francisco and an international team of scientists revealed what seemed to be the earliest known evidence of stone tool use by human ancestors. The rib of a cow-sized animal and the thigh bone of a goat-sized antelope discovered buried in shallow, sandy soil in Dikika, Ethiopia, were marked with cuts, hinting that stone implements were used to remove flesh from the bones and extract the marrow.
These bones date back at least 3.4 million years, pre-dating evidence for stone tool use from Gona, Ethiopia, by some 800,000 years. Their discoverers suggested they might well have been made by Australopithecus afarensis, the extinct species that the fossil "Lucy" belonged to, which was known to live in Dikika.
Now, however, a different international team of scientists contends the marks seen on those bones were not made by ancient butchers. Instead, they suggest they are likely scratches made by animals trampling across the bones....