Are more ancient tools – ElTiempo.com

The first tools may be much earlier than what was previously thought. 150 stone artifacts recently discovered in Kenya have been dated at 3.3 million years ago, 700,000 years before the appearance of our genus, according to a study published in the British scientific journal Nature.

The sizes described in the work greatly anticipate the known origins of the genus Homo ‘, distinguished by making tools, among other features, and includes modern humans, although it remains to determine the species of hominids They produced. “The only hominid he walked at the time was the horrid kenyanthropus, an enigmatic mix with human features of Australopithecus and modern,” says the report by the newspaper El Pais in Spain.

The existence of stone tools associated with genus Homo ‘had been dated at 2.6 million years old as a result of discoveries made in Ethiopia.

In this country They found stone tools along with fossil remains of one of the oldest specimens of the genus ‘Homo’, the ‘Homo habilis’, belonging to the culture called olduvayense.

But the main author of the study published in Nature, Sonia Harmand, West Turkana Archaeological Project shows that the unearthed at the site called Lomekwi 3, near Lake Turkana in Kenya, objects olduvayenses tools anticipate more than 700,000 years.

The collection includes anvils, stone hammers and singing the same material used for cutting and grinding. The work shows that newly discovered pieces are older than the tools from the olduvayense culture and hominids Lomekwi area had a powerful hand grip and good control of motility, showing signs of cognitive abilities and relatives coming of human beings.

The shape of the tools found in Kenya indicates that were used to crush all possible objects and make sharp blades force, the report says.

The authors explain that the motor movements of the arm and hand these actions needed to be more like those made by chimpanzees and other primates to crack nuts and fruits that those who carried out the cultures olduvayenses when they use the tools.

EFE (LONDON)