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Our ape-like ancestors may have stopped dragging their knuckles and
started making tools a half million years earlier than previously
thought, according to a new study.
The study, published online Thursday in the journal Science, suggests that the art of tool making may not be exclusive to the genus Homo, which led to modern Homo sapiens.
At least one species in the dead-end genus Australopithecus appears to
have enough of the hand characteristics that would have made tool
crafting possible, the study found.
That would mean that the credit for tool use would now be shared between Homo habilis — most often thought to be the progenitor of tool-making hominins — and Australopithecus africanus, a species that wandered around southern Africa about 2-3 million years ago.
Since then, modern Homo sapiens
has used a lot of his tool-making ability to type out arguments over
which ancestor first flaked a stone into a sharp-edged tool. So it’s
unlikely that one study will settle the matter…
Source Article from http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AscensionEarth2012/~3/2yXsTT4BAu4/tool-making-arose-earlier-among-human.html
Tool making arose earlier among human ancestors
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