World's Oldest Stone Tools Were Made By Ape-Like Hominid 3.3 Million Years Ago

The greatest technological innovation in history was achieved by an ape-like hominid 3.3 million years ago.

BEN TAUB
Freelance Writer



The earliest stone tools ever used are known as the Oldowan toolkit.

Image credit: Appio Studios/Shutterstock.com

In the opening sequence to Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, an ape-like hominin is depicted as the inventor of the first-ever primitive tool, changing the course of human history forever. Half a century after the film’s release, scientists confirmed that the earliest stone implements were indeed manufactured by a species that predated the Homo lineage, which means humans weren’t the first to create tools.

Nicknamed "Handy Man", the ancient human species Homo habilis is renowned for its extensive use of the so-called Oldowan toolkit, which consists of basic knapped flakes that could be used as blades. For a while, the extinct hominid was credited with inventing this primitive technology, yet recent discoveries have drastically changed that narrative.

For instance, in 2011, researchers in Kenya stumbled upon a collection of knapped flakes at a site called Lomekwi 3. Dated to 3.3 million years ago, the tools were created about a million years before our Handy ancestor made its entrance and half a million years before the appearance of the genus Homo.

Exactly which pre-human species created these tools is unknown, although fossils belonging to the ancient hominin Kenyanthropus platyops have been found near to the site. The region was also home to the species Australopithecus afarensis - of which the iconic Lucy was a member - around the time that the tools were made.

More:
https://www.iflscience.com/worlds-oldest-stone-tools-were-made-by-ape-like-hominid-33-million-years-ago-70138