New Evidence Found of Tool Use Among Ancient Humans

Scientists discover that humans 3.4 million years ago used stone tools.

ANCIENT TOOL USE: These two bones, which have been dated to roughly 3.4 million years ago, are a rib fragment from a cow-size mammal and a femur shaft fragment from a goat-size mammal. Both bones are marred by cut, scrape, and percussion marks. Dikika Research Project/California Academy of Sciences

A team of scientists from Germany, France, and the United States has found evidence that ancient humans 3.4 million years ago used stone tools to cut meat. This is nearly a million years earlier than previously known oldest evidence of stone tool use. Their findings were published in the journal Nature Aug. 12.

“This find will definitely force us to revise our text books,” Dr. Zeresenay Alemseged from the California Academy of Sciences said in a press release. “These developments had a huge impact on the story of humanity.”

In Ethiopia, the research team found mammal bones with marks that, after analysis, indicate that they were made from carving meat off the bones and breaking the bones to extract marrow. The shapes of the marks were like those created by stone cuts rather than tooth bites, and a small piece of rock was embedded in one of the cut marks.