Interesting Link: Knife Use 2.3 Million Years Ago

Anyone reason why people shouldn't frown on us knife people. Knives were originally and will always be a tool. Next time someone gives you a dirty look for pulling out a pocket knife ask them what they cut their f'ing steak with. :)
 
This sort of thing comes up constantly in paleoanthropology, the study of ancient humans. One sure way to get a discussion going on the intelligence level of a particular early species is to assess the stone tools found in conjunction with the bones, and the marks on the bones that will have come from deliberate cutting rather than animal teeth.

If something this far back is verified, it will be interesting, since later forms may not have been as handy. The find may be identifying the direct line of descent to us.
 
Excellent link, thank you. I am very interested in anthropology and paleontology. And I have great respect for these 50 lb. bipedal primates running around on the African veldt, surrounded by dozens of predatory species. Much of what we are in our minds and bodies, both the good and the bad, is from them.

On a lighter note, I wonder when the first "serrated versus plain edge" argument began?
 
I thought both Raymond Dart and Louis Leakey found pebble tools associated with Aystralopithecine remains long ago. Leakey decided to remains for Olduvai Gorge Homo habilis based on the tool use, but the fossils were anatomically very much like the A. africanus bones originally found at Sterkfontain in South Africa by Dart in the 1920s. Most Australopithecine sites have bones of prey type animals with tool marks and twist type fractures that some people have ascribed to the Hominids. Others argue for scavengers doing the damage to the bones, but I find it hard to believe that it is unrelated to the primates.

Both of these were younger than the age of the new find. The South African remains are thought to be a million years old or less. It sort of raises the possibility of long term development of related Hominid taxa in Africa.

As far as serretions VS plain edges, you can see the evolution of tools from the most uneven to smoother and smoother edges through the millenia.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top