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  • Expanded geographic distribution and dietary strategies of the earliest

    From Primum Sapienti@21:1/5 to All on Thu Feb 9 23:12:47 2023
    https://www.science.org/doi/epdf/10.1126/science.abo7452
    10 February 2023

    Expanded geographic distribution and dietary strategies
    of the earliest Oldowan hominins and Paranthropus

    Abstract
    The oldest Oldowan tool sites, from around 2.6 million
    years ago, have previously been confined to Ethiopia’s
    Afar Triangle. We describe sites at Nyayanga, Kenya,
    dated to 3.032 to 2.581 million years ago and expand
    this distribution by over 1300 kilometers. Furthermore,
    we found two hippopotamid butchery sites associated
    with mosaic vegetation and a C4 grazer–dominated fauna.
    Tool flaking proficiency was comparable with that of
    younger Oldowan assemblages, but pounding activities
    were more common. Tool use-wear and bone damage
    indicate plant and animal tissue processing.
    Paranthropus sp. teeth, the first from southwestern
    Kenya, possessed carbon isotopic values indicative of
    a diet rich in C4 foods. We argue that the earliest
    Oldowan was more widespread than previously known,
    used to process diverse foods including megafauna, and
    associated with Paranthropus from its onset.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Pandora@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Fri Feb 10 13:48:07 2023
    On Thu, 9 Feb 2023 23:12:47 -0700, Primum Sapienti
    <[email protected]d> wrote:

    https://www.science.org/doi/epdf/10.1126/science.abo7452
    10 February 2023

    Expanded geographic distribution and dietary strategies
    of the earliest Oldowan hominins and Paranthropus

    Abstract
    The oldest Oldowan tool sites, from around 2.6 million
    years ago, have previously been confined to Ethiopia�s
    Afar Triangle. We describe sites at Nyayanga, Kenya,
    dated to 3.032 to 2.581 million years ago and expand
    this distribution by over 1300 kilometers. Furthermore,
    we found two hippopotamid butchery sites associated
    with mosaic vegetation and a C4 grazer�dominated fauna.
    Tool flaking proficiency was comparable with that of
    younger Oldowan assemblages, but pounding activities
    were more common. Tool use-wear and bone damage
    indicate plant and animal tissue processing.
    Paranthropus sp. teeth, the first from southwestern
    Kenya, possessed carbon isotopic values indicative of
    a diet rich in C4 foods. We argue that the earliest
    Oldowan was more widespread than previously known,
    used to process diverse foods including megafauna, and
    associated with Paranthropus from its onset.

    The authors are correct in stating that "the Nyayanga artifacts cannot
    be definitively attributed to a specific hominin genus", because Homo
    may also have been present at 2.8 Mya. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aaa1343

    Susman in 1988 already argued that the Paranthropus hand was adapted
    to tool use: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.3129783,
    but the taxonomic status of those hand bones was entirely based on
    "statistical probability", which is questionable given that early Homo
    was also present there, e.g. SK 847: https://ditsong.org.za/en/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Picture1.png

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