An ancient bone tool, made from a piece of a large animal’s rib, features three curved barbs and a carved tip. The implement was made more than 800,000 years ago, probably by Homo erectus. M. PANTE ET AL/JOURNAL OF HUMAN EVOLUTION 2020
Posted on 10/28/2020 11:11:16 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
A set of 52 previously excavated but little-studied animal bones from East Africa's Olduvai Gorge includes the world's oldest known barbed bone point, an implement probably crafted by now-extinct Homo erectus at least 800,000 years ago, researchers say. Made from a piece of a large animal's rib, the artifact features three curved barbs and a carved tip, the team reports in the November Journal of Human Evolution.
Among the Olduvai bones, biological anthropologist Michael Pante of Colorado State University in Fort Collins and colleagues identified five other tools from more than 800,000 years ago as probable choppers, hammering tools or hammering platforms.
The previous oldest barbed bone points were from a central African site and dated to around 90,000 years ago (SN: 4/29/95), and were assumed to reflect a toolmaking ingenuity exclusive to Homo sapiens. Those implements include carved rings around the base of the tools where wooden shafts were presumably attached. Barbed bone points found at H. sapiens sites were likely used to catch fish and perhaps to hunt large land prey.
The Olduvai Gorge barbed bone point, which had not been completed, shows no signs of having been attached to a handle or shaft. Ways in which H. erectus used the implement are unclear, Pante and his colleagues say.
This find and four of the other bone implements date to at least 800,000 years ago, based on their original positions below Olduvai sediment that records a known reversal of Earth's magnetic field about 781,000 years ago. Another bone artifact dates to roughly 1.7 million years ago, the researchers say.
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencenews.org ...
I’m pretty sure I’ve read about some animals who also know how to fashion tools and weapons.
Monkeys, bears, raccoons and even the clever crow.
homo erectus?
Were they on ecstasy?
So.. Mayor Pete?
“ homo erectus?”
Otherwise known as Hunter
Homo erectus crafted this to pick their noses.
So what they are saying is that the use of bone tools predated the evolution of modern humans.
The Lord crafted this ‘barbed bone’ so we poor souls could mate and not have to run at the same time...
Couple raccoons here can unscrew nuts off a hub cap with their teeth...they leave em on the porch in front of the door at night as a present.
What do they do with the hub caps?
Maybe they expect to trade your lug nuts for a couple of walnuts. “Ain’t that how it works?” asked Rocky Raccoon.
play frizbee of course- life isn’t all work for them ya know-
#11. Those were drunk neighbors, not raccoons. Racoons can twist metal tops off of jars. They did it to me.
#12. Re “What do they do with the hub caps?
They formed a backup group for, I thought, Gene Vincent but my Billboard’s Top Hits says they were call the “Blue Caps”.
Does anyone know of a group called “The Hub Caps”? In a movie? “Black Board Jungle”? “High School Confidential”?
The movie “Cars”?
Reminds me my sister was out with some gay friends, male and female. They got a flat tire and I had to come bust the lug nuts for them. Had one hold the lug wrench with both hands while I stomped the crosspiece.
It’s late, I just got off work after a strange shift tending bar, at home having a couple of drinks to unwind. So I’m scrolling through FR posts and see this one. So I think to myself I may as well click on it, maybe reading an article about about erect homos with barbed tools will put my evening in perspective.
This lawsuit is going to be enormous.
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