Half a million years ago, the ancestors of Homo sapiens chipped away at lava rocks to make blades. So say University of Connecticut anthropologists Cara Roure Johnson and Sally McBrearty, who found the tools in Kenya's Kapthurin formation in 2004 and 2005. The scientists recently announced that the artifacts are between 500,000 and 550,000 years old, making them roughly 150,000 years older than any other known blades--and older than our species. Toolmaking may have given early humans greater flexibility in a changing environment, Johnson says, helping to drive the evolution of later species.
Source Citation
"Cutting-edge technology." Science Illustrated May-June 2010: 24. General OneFile. Web. 7 June 2010.
Document URL
http://find.galegroup.com/gps/infomark.do?&contentSet=IAC-Documents&type=retrieve&tabID=T003&prodId=IPS&docId=A225073722&source=gale&srcprod=ITOF&userGroupName=18551_mcpls&version=1.0
Gale Document Number:A225073722
Monday, June 7, 2010
Museum of Anthropology at UBC
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Dinosaur
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