Evidence for stone-tool-assisted consumption of animal tissues before 3.39 million years ago at Dikika, Ethiopia
Autor: | Denné Reed, Denis Geraads, René Bobe, Hamdallah Bearat, Shannon P. McPherron, Curtis W. Marean, Zeresenay Alemseged, Jonathan G. Wynn |
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Přispěvatelé: | Department of Human Evolution [Leipzig], Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology [Leipzig], Max-Planck-Gesellschaft-Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Department of Anthropology, California Academy of Sciences, California Academy of Sciences, Institute of Human Origins, Department of Anthropology, Department of Geology, University of South Florida, University of South Florida [Tampa] (USF), Dynamique de l'évolution humaine : individus, populations, espèces [Paris] (DEHIPE), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Boston, Priscillia |
Rok vydání: | 2010 |
Předmět: |
Technology
010506 paleontology Meat Hominidae [SHS.ANTHRO-BIO]Humanities and Social Sciences/Biological anthropology engineering.material Neogene 01 natural sciences Bone and Bones Paleontology Eutheria Animals 0601 history and archaeology History Ancient ComputingMilieux_MISCELLANEOUS 0105 earth and related environmental sciences Stone tool 060101 anthropology Multidisciplinary Tool Use Behavior biology Fossils myr Ruminants 06 humanities and the arts biology.organism_classification [SHS.ANTHRO-BIO] Humanities and Social Sciences/Biological anthropology Diet Australopithecus Food engineering Ethiopia Cenozoic Australopithecus afarensis |
Zdroj: | Nature Nature, Nature Publishing Group, 2010, 466, pp.857-860 |
ISSN: | 1476-4687 0028-0836 1476-4679 |
Popis: | The oldest direct evidence of stone tool manufacture comes from Gona (Ethiopia) and dates to between 2.6 and 2.5 million years (Myr) ago. At the nearby Bouri site several cut-marked bones also show stone tool use approximately 2.5 Myr ago. Here we report stone-tool-inflicted marks on bones found during recent survey work in Dikika, Ethiopia, a research area close to Gona and Bouri. On the basis of low-power microscopic and environmental scanning electron microscope observations, these bones show unambiguous stone-tool cut marks for flesh removal and percussion marks for marrow access. The bones derive from the Sidi Hakoma Member of the Hadar Formation. Established (40)Ar-(39)Ar dates on the tuffs that bracket this member constrain the finds to between 3.42 and 3.24 Myr ago, and stratigraphic scaling between these units and other geological evidence indicate that they are older than 3.39 Myr ago. Our discovery extends by approximately 800,000 years the antiquity of stone tools and of stone-tool-assisted consumption of ungulates by hominins; furthermore, this behaviour can now be attributed to Australopithecus afarensis. |
Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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