[DannyTN]

If man had the ability to construct and grasp tools 500,000 years ago, he would have proliferated and the evidence of his existence would be overwhelming instead of rare.

[Verginius Rufus]

Early man was doing his best to proliferate 500,000 years ago, but too many of them were getting stomped on by brontosauruses.

[freedumb2003]

>>If man had the ability to construct and grasp tools 500,000 years ago, he would have proliferated and the evidence of his existence would be overwhelming instead of rare.<<

Complete non sequitur.

[a fool in paradise]

common core cavemen told those who tried making tools to quit ruining rocks and “trying to be something you’re not”.

[xenia]

“If man had the ability to construct and grasp tools 500,000 years ago, he would have proliferated and the evidence of his existence would be overwhelming instead of rare”

I’ve often thought about the population considerations when people throw out these numbers of hundreds of thousands and millions of years. I’ve never seen anybody address it before your post. Thx.

[zeestephen]

Re: Little Evidence of Man's Earlier Existence

You forgot that at least 300,000 of those 500,000 years were during brutal Ice Ages.

Also, it's quite possible that earlier humans lacked the same zealous reproductive instincts that 95% of Homo Sapiens have.

[SunkenCiv]

That is in fact the point of the study — the existing, known tools of that age were made by hands basically exactly the same as ours.

[justa-hairyape]

There were a few cold ice age periods during those times, and not much remains after that ice age weather gets cranking and builds mile high glaciers.