Discovery of new stone tools could REWRITE what we know about early human history, now with the world`s oldest tools pushes homo genus date back to 3.3-million-years

World's oldest tools could rewrite early human history: 3.3-million-year-old stones predate Homo by 700,000 YEARS
--3.3 million-year-old tools were found in the badlands of north-west Kenya
--They are thought to have been made by our distant cousins to crack nuts
--Find pushes the known date of handheld tools back by 700,000 years
--It adds to growing belief that pre-humans exhibited ‘human-like’ behaviour

By SARAH GRIFFITHS FOR MAILONLINE
May 20, 2015

The use of stone tools by our ancient ancestors was, until now, thought to have originated with the Homo genus around 2.6 million years ago. But the discovery of a collection of implements in Kenya, which predate this by a staggering 700,000 years, could rewrite what we know about early human history.

Researchers believe the 3.3-million-year-old stones - including anvils, hammers and cores - were made by a undetermined hominin species which had a 'strong grip and good motor control'.


The use of stone tools by our ancient ancestors was, until now, thought to have originated with the Homo genus around 2.6 million years ago.But the discovery of a collection of implements (one pictured) in Kenya, which predate this by a staggering 700,000 years, could rewrite what we know about early human history. Img credit: MPK-WTAP

Stone-tool culture associated with Homo has been dated back to around 2.6 million years ago and this was based on evidence found in Ethiopia.

In particular, artefacts were found near the remains of one of the earliest Homo fossils, Homo habilis, also known as 'the handy man', and this culture is described as Oldowan.

WHO MADE THE ANCIENT TOOLS?
While the researchers said they can't currently be sure who made the tools, an earlier find of a skull suggests it may have been Kenyanthropus platytops - a hominin living 3.3 million years ago.

This is because the skull was found in 1999 less than a mile (1km) from the tool site.
The precise family tree of modern humans is contentious, and so far, no one knows exactly how K. platyops relates to other hominin species, although Kenyanthropus predates the earliest known Homo species by a half a million years.

This species could have made the tools, or the toolmaker could have been some other species from the same era, such as Australopithecus afarensis, or an as-yet undiscovered early type of Homo, the researchers say.

The new tools, unearthed from the Lomekwi 3 site next to Lake Turkana in Kenya, predate these Oldowan tools by around 700,000 years, according to lead researcher Sonia Harmand from Stony Brook University in New York.


Professor Harmand and colleagues from Hebrew University in Jerusalem said the collection, which additionally includes worked cobbles, is more primitive than that found in Ethiopia but would have been made by a group with the 'cognitive capabilities of early relatives of humans.' Img credit: Nature

[...]

The finds add to a growing belief that pre-human forms exhibited ‘human’ behaviour and seem to challenge the notion that our most direct ancestors were the first to bang two rocks together to create a new 'technology'.

The tools are the first piece of evidence that an even earlier group of proto-humans may have had the thinking abilities needed to figure out how to make sharp-edged tools and mark ‘a new beginning to the known archaeological record’ according to the study, published in the Nature journal.

‘The whole site’s surprising, it just rewrites the book on a lot of things that we thought were true,’ said Chris Lepre of the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and Rutgers University, a co-author of the paper who precisely dated the artefacts.

Professor Sonia Harmand and her colleagues from Hebrew University in Jerusalem said the collection includes anvils, hammer stones, worked cobbles and cores (two example cores are pictured with a flake)


Stone-tool culture associated with Homo dates back around 2.6 million years. This stems from artefacts found near the remains of one of the earliest Homo fossils, Homo habilis, also known as 'the handy man', in Ethiopia. This culture is described as Oldowan and a traditional Oldowan 'chopper' is pictured. Img credit: Wikimedia Commons/Locutus Borg

[...]

WHY IS THE FIND IMPORTANT?
The find of more than 100 tools adds to a growing belief that pre-human forms exhibited ‘human’ behaviour and seem to challenge the notion that out most direct ancestors were the first to bang two rocks together to create a new technology.

They were crafted long before modern humans, probably by some sort of human ancestor and push the known date of handheld tools back by 700,000 years.

The tools are the first piece of evidence that an even earlier group of proto-humans may have had the thinking abilities needed to figure out how to make sharp-edged tools and mark ‘a new beginning to the known archaeological record’ according to the study.

THE COMPLEX EVOLUTION OF MAN
55 million years ago - First primitive primates evolve
15 million years ago - Hominidae (great apes) evolve from the ancestors of the gibbon
8 million years ago - First gorillas evolve. Later, chimp and human lineages diverge
5.5 million years ago - Ardipithecus, early ‘proto-human’ shares traits with chimps and gorillas
4 million years ago - Australopithecines appeared. They had brains no larger than a chimpanzee's
2.8 million years ago - LD 350-1 appeared and may be the first of the Homo family
2.7 million years ago - Paranthropus, lived in woods and had massive jaws for chewing
2.3 million years ago - Homo habalis first thought to have appeared in Africa
1.8 million years ago - Homo ergaster begins to appear in fossil record
1.6 million years ago - Hand axes become the first major technological innovation
800,000 years ago - Early humans control fire and create hearths. Brain size increases rapidly
400,000 years ago - Neanderthals first begin to appear and spread across Europe and Asia
200,000 years ago - Homo sapiens - modern humans - appear in Africa
40,000 years ago - Modern humans reach Europe

...

(read full article here)

Experts claim to find preserved skin tissue on a 2 MILLION-year-old fossil - that would be the oldest in the world folks

Have scientists unearthed the world's oldest human SKIN? Preserved tissue found on a 2 MILLION-year-old fossil, expert claims
-South African anthropologists believe they have found preserved skin that belonged to an early human species known as Australopithecus sediba
-It could be the oldest soft tissue ever found for an early human species
-Scientists say they also discovered food particles in the teeth of the fossils
-The fossils were discovered in Malapa Nature Reserve near Johannesburg
By RICHARD GRAY FOR MAILONLINE
May 8, 2015

[Fossilized] skin belonging to a prehistoric human ancestor that lived two million years ago is thought to have been discovered among the remains of six skeletons.

Anthropologists believe they have found the preserved skin tissue of an early human species known as Australopithecus sediba in an ancient cave near Johannesburg, in South Africa. It could be the oldest example of human soft tissue to ever be found and is set to reveal new details about what this now extinct species of human was like.


Thin layers of 'organic' material thought to be skin was found attacked to the cement like rock from which this skull Australopithecus sediba was removed by anthropologists at the Malapa site in South Africa (credit AFP/Getty)

Scientists who have been leading the excavation, which began with the discovery of the remains of a 4ft 2 inch tall male juvenile in 2008, believe they have also found the remains of the ancient humans' last meals still preserved in their teeth. They say seeds and other food particles that became stuck in the creatures' teeth have been preserved.

Professor Lee Berger, an anthropologist at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, who has been leading the excavation, said: 'We found out this wasn't just a normal type of rock that they were contained in - it was a rock that was preserving organic material.

'Plant remains are captured in it - seeds, things like that - even food particulates that are captured in the teeth, so we can see what they were eating. 'Maybe more remarkably, we think we've found fossil skin here too.'

Professor Berger, who made his comments in an interview with the Naked Scientists, discovered the first remains of Australopithecus sediba in 2008 after his son Matthew stumbled upon a [sic] fossilised bone in the Malapa Nature Reserve near Johannesburg.

They later excavated an almost complete skull, together with shoulder bones, a hand, wrist bones and ankle bones. Professor Berger announced the discovery to the world in 2010.
He described the early human as a new species that he called Australopithecus sediba and is thought to be a transitional species between earlier Australopithecus species and early Homo species...

[...]

AUSTRALOPITHECUS SEDIBA - A PIGEON-TOED CLIMBER
Research on the fossils of Australopithecus sediba have given an unprecidented insight into what these early human ancestors were like.

The fossils, which were studied by scientists across the world, show a mixture of primitive features and of more advanced features typical of later human species.

It has a narrow upper rib cage while the modern human's thorax is uniformly cylindrical. The cone-shaped rib cage allowed the early hominin to move its shoulder blades so it could climb trees. However, this prevented A. sediba from swinging its arms, meaning that walking and running was much more difficult. It had a slim waist similar to modern humans but feet which turned sharply inwards.

A. sediba had the same number of lumbar vertebrae as a modern man and a similar curvature of the lower back. However, its back was longer and more flexible than that of modern humans.
They had longer arms than we do with curved fingers, which would have made them adept at climbing.


Australopithecus sediba is thought to have lived in South Africa around 1.9 million to 2 million years ago at around the same time as other early humans were evolving across the African continent (Credit: Leo Delauncey/MailOnline)

The researchers also hope to find out whether, if it is soft tissue, it had been dried or soaked in water as it was preserved in the rock.

The remains of plants and insects have also been found preserved in the cement-like breccia alongside the skeletons.

It is thought that sediment in the bottom of a pool of water may have helped to protect the organic material from bacteria that would have caused them to rot and break down.
Professor Berger and his team are now trying to create a live laboratory on top of the site so they can continue working on the fossils while they are still in the ground without damaging them.

The laboratory will also have a platform that will allow members of the public to look down into the site where the remains are being excavated...

[click here to continue reading the article]