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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
 Posted - 08/14/2010 : 06:50:38
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A afarensis, it seems was a tool user, or so this study implies. If correct, it sets the origins of tool use in hominins back some 800,000 years. Which further implies that tool use could have been common clear back to the last human/chimp, common ancestor.
Ker Than
for National Geographic News
Published August 11, 2010
Early human ancestors may have been using tools about 800,000 years earlier than thought, according to a new study based on newfound bone evidence—prehistoric leftovers linked to the famed "Lucy" fossil's species.
The discovery suggests, to at least one scientist, that tool use may extend as far back as five million years ago, to the last common ancestor of chimps and humans.
Found in East Africa, the two 3.4 million-year-old animal bones behind the new study appear to have been cut and crushed by stone tools wielded by the apelike human-ancestor species Australopithecus afarensis.
"You have all these images in museums and elsewhere showing Lucy walking through this East African landscape looking for food, and now we can put a stone tool in Lucy's hand," said study co-author Shannon McPherron, an archaeologist with the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany.
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A fascinating article, clearly demonstrating that the more we learn, the more we have yet to learn. Eat yer freakin' liver, Ham, for you will ever dwell in willful ignorance.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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AnthroGeek
New Member
USA
38 Posts |
Posted - 08/14/2010 : 07:44:38 [Permalink]
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As much as I would like to see tool use pushed back farther on the Hominin line there might be another cause of the marks found.
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A series of fun one-liners about various pseudoscientific claims and, even better, a concise description of the scientific method - Ken Feder on Skeptic Friends Network from "Frauds, Myths and Mysteries" |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
 Posted - 08/14/2010 : 10:52:23 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by AnthroGeek
As much as I would like to see tool use pushed back farther on the Hominin line there might be another cause of the marks found.
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I've looked carefully at the photographs of the marks left by the croc bite and the questioned tool mark and see a considerable difference. The tool mark is a straight scratch such as that of a blade of some sort skittering across bone during meat removal. The croc bite is pitted and crooked -- their teeth are not all that sharp and are designed for holding, rather than cutting. I think a bone as delicate as a rib would simply have been crushed, but I agree; another possibility.
But another question, and an even more interesting one, is lurking in the shadows: if the marks are indeed tool marks, and the rib bone has been accurately dated, what tool made them? The mark is as clean as any found in a butcher's shop, so had the bit of stone been modified? Had it been knapped or was it just a busted cobble?
I dunno and I'm looking forward to the experts sorting it out. I'm sure there will be much scientific bloodshed and creationist frothing before it's over with.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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The Rat
SFN Regular
Canada
1370 Posts |
Posted - 08/15/2010 : 05:37:56 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by filthy
I think a bone as delicate as a rib would simply have been crushed,... |
If the jaws are this powerful, then yeah, they will be crushed.
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Bailey's second law; There is no relationship between the three virtues of intelligence, education, and wisdom.
You fiend! Never have I encountered such corrupt and foul-minded perversity! Have you ever considered a career in the Church? - The Bishop of Bath and Wells, Blackadder II
Baculum's page: http://www.bebo.com/Profile.jsp?MemberId=3947338590 |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 08/15/2010 : 06:34:14 [Permalink]
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There are different teeth in crocodilians suited for their diets. Gavials, for example, have thin, very sharp teeth. They are strictly fish-eaters.
And this is a Nile Crocodile's choppers. These guys will eat anything containing protine. The bird doing the dental work is one of the African Ox-peckers.
Neat 'gators. They remind me of a place where I worked back in the mid-fifties -- the best job I ever had. Thanks!
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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Lucy drove steel like a man, lord lord.......
