The First Stone Tool Makers were NOT Human!

The best PaleoFirdays are based on and informed on the past week's news. This week we had some exciting news coming out of Kenya in the form of a new paper published in the Journal Science by the lead author Tom Plummer ( While Emma Finestone was involved with the find, she is not the lead author, as I mentioned mistakenly in the video).

In this episode, we will discuss stone tools, how old they are, and who made them. Still, more importantly, we are going to talk about why the discovery is important and, at the same time, why leading stream media, such as CNN, etc., is way overblowing this new find.

It is important, but not as much as the media is making of it, by my understanding.

So watch, and enjoy!

Be sure to subscribe if you have learned something new, and if you have any questions, leave them in the comments below!

[cerasinopshodgskissi]

This discovery really excited me. Paranthropus is my favorite genus of hominin, I just find them so fascinating how adapted they were to their diets and ecosystems. I’ve always thought that Paranthropus along with many other species likely used stone tools, as Lomekwi showed that Australopithecus afarensis was doing this, so it would be reasonable to say that its descendants, like Paranthropus, Australopithecus garhi, and Australopithecus africanus did that too. Even though this discovery doesn’t mean much for Paranthropus specifically, I still think it’s very cool. Also, the idea that those species were eating meat is so fascinating as they were so well adapted for eating plants, that even though it’s not weird that they could have eaten meat, it’s definitely weird to think about. Gosh that got me on a tangent, but anyways, loved the video as always Seth!

[mad]

I am just utterly fascinated with prehistory. There's so much evidence but at the same time there's not enough to make a lot of definitive statements. It's a real paradox and I love it!

[waynesworldofsci-tech]

The teeth from the UW-105 dig were large, possibly Paranthropus. A bone tool was found with the skeletal remains.

So far the hominem from UW-105 hasn’t been identified. I’m biting my nails in anticipation.