Stone tools human evolution

The ancient artifacts were found three miles away from the site where the oldest known Homo fossil, a 2. Compared with the Gona tools and other Oldowan artifacts, the latest finds are actually rather crude. Still, the Ledi-Geraru artifacts are distinct enough from the older Lomekwian tools to warrant their classification as Oldowan.

The 2. To date the Ledi-Geraru trove —likely dropped by early humans at the edge of a body of water and subsequently buried for millions of years —researchers drew on volcanic ash found several feet below the excavation site, as well as the magnetic signature of various sediment samples.

But as Bower notes, some scientists have expressed skepticism regarding these dating methods. Introduction Humans display evolved capacities for complex technological, symbolic and social action that are unique among extant species. Stone toolmaking action hierarchies Analysis of toolmaking action sequences is not new in archaeology. Open in a separate window. Figure 1. Lower palaeolithic culture change This paper examines one of the best known, widely accepted and well-documented characteristics of the Lower Palaeolithic record: the increase over time in the upper limits of variation in technological complexity on a global scale.

Figure 2. Conclusions Stone toolmaking action analyses presented here demonstrate the presence of cumulative cultural evolution in the Lower Palaeolithic and suggest that this accumulation displays an accelerating rate of change continuous with that seen in later human history.

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The oldest hand-axes in Europe. Nature , 82— Norton C. The Movius Line sensu lato Norton et al. Individuals whose hands were better suited to making tools were better able to hunt and protect themselves; this made them more evolutionarily fit able to produce more offspring , leading to an eventual proliferation of the genes involved in the better hand formation.

So when stone tools went from simple banged rocks to complex hand-axes around 1. Before this new technology, the fossil record shows that hominin hands had primitive vestige structures. Their fingers had a gentle curve like those of the austrolopithicines, and their wrist morphology resembled that of a part-time arboreal species.

Despite these primitive traits, the more modern proportions and joint connecting the finger bones to those of the palm allowed Homo habilis to be credited with the invention of stone tools.

Hominin fossils are a rare find at best, and small finger bones especially are easily broken in the millennia they spend in the soil before being excavated. Stone tools, on the other hand, are much more easily preserved. During this almost 1 million year gap, stone tool technology advanced greatly, enough to warrant a new name — Acheulean industry. But what morphological difference had made this advancement possible? Hand axes of the Acheulean type made and used by the species Homo erectus.