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Oldest Tool Made Three Millions Years Ago By Early Hominids
OLDEST TOOL MADE THREE MILLIONS YEARS AGO BY EARLY HOMINIDS
People often believe that humans are different from the animal kingdom because they can think and create with tools. But in reality, monkeys, otters, birds, octopuses, and many other animals also use tools. Aside from the fact that humans weren't the only modern creatures to use tools, they weren't the first, either. The discovery of stone tools indicates that early hominids, rather than the later "human" members of the genus Homo, used tools made of stone flakes in their daily lives. One type of his early tools is known as the Oldowan tool. Throughout Europe and Asia, late Paleolithic creators used stone tools. This period lasted from about 1.7 million years ago to he 2.9 million years ago. The "buttoned" tool was created through a dangerous process of moulding flint. Homo habilis and other early human species likely used these stones to carve meat, wood, and other materials.
This type of stone tool is not the oldest. About 3.3 million years ago, another species of ancient creature worked stone into usable shapes. A stone fragment found at the Lomekwi 3 site in West Turkana, Kenya, back in 2011, is the oldest surviving stone tool ever discovered. They were probably created by one or two hominim species. Kenyanthropus platyops is an ancient species that lived in this region and was discovered in 1999 by Mary Leaky and colleagues.
A contemporary of the species, Australopithecus afarensis, may have also created this tool. This latter species includes Lucy, the famous skeleton discovered in 1974. Both species lived in similar areas at the same time, but differences in anatomy suggest that they may have had different feeding methods. Such differentiation reduces competition. Regardless of who created these ancient tools, they predate modern humans, making the tools very old.