Earliest known Oldowan artifacts at >2.58 Ma from Ledi-Geraru, Ethiopia, highlight early technological diversity

• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1820177116
• Publication Date: 2019-06-04T00:26:10Z
• Authors: David R. Braun; Vera Aldeias; Will Archer; J Ramon Arrowsmith; Niguss Baraki; Christopher J. Ca...; Alan L. Deino; Erin N. DiMaggio; Guillaume Dupont-...; Blade Engda; David A. Feary; Dominique I. Garello; Zenash Kerfelew; Shannon P. McPherron; David B. Patterson; Jonathan S. Reeves; Jessica C. Thompson; Kaye E. Reed
• Keywords: 0301 basic medicine; Technology; 0303 health sciences; 791; [SHS.ARCHEO] Humanities and Social Sciences/Archaeology and Prehistory; [SHS.ARCHEO]Humanities and Social Sciences/Archaeology and Prehistory; Fossils; Homo; Paleontology; 15. Life on land; Oldowan; Adaptation, Physiological; Biological Evolution; 03 medical and health sciences; paleoanthropology; Humans; stone tools; Ethiopia; cultural evolution; Artifacts; 10. No inequality

Significance Humans are distinguished from all other primates by their reliance on tool use. When this uniquely human feature began is debated. Evidence of tool use in human ancestors now extends almost 3.3 Ma and becomes prevalent only after 2.6 Ma with the Oldowan. Here, we report a new Oldowan locality (BD 1) that dates prior to 2.6 Ma. These earliest Oldowan tools are distinctive from the 3.3 Ma assemblage and from materials that modern nonhuman primates produce. So, although tool production and use represent a generalized trait of many primates, including human ancestors, the production of Oldowan stone artifacts appears to mark a systematic shift in tool manufacture that occurs at a time of major environmental changes.