Becoming Human

Butele is a paleontological locality in the Afar region of Ethiopia, near the better known sites of Gona and Hadar (where Australopithecus afarensis -  Lucy was found in 1974).

A month ago we posted - Oldest Stone Tools? - the announcement of possibly the oldest stone tools ever. The discovery was reported at a scientific meeting in San Francisco and has been followed up with a paper published this week in the journal Nature.

The likelihood the oldest stone tools to date, at 3.3 MYA (million years ago), have been discovered was revealed at a meeting of the Paleoanthropology Society last week in San Francisco.

An American team working in the Afar region of Ethiopia has found the earliest evidence of our genus Homo, it was announced last week in the journal Science.

The discovery of a fragment of a human cranium located in a cave in the Galilee, was announced in the journal Nature this week. The fragment is a skullcap or calvaria and dated to 55,000 years ago.

Long overlooked fresh water shells lying in a museum drawer for more than a century have yielded the earliest evidence of symbolic behavior, according to an article in Nature this week..

The article is entitled “Homo erectus at Trinil on Java used shells for tool production and engraving“, by Josephine C. A. Joordens et al. The abstract of the article states:

Lucy, the three million year old fossil skeleton, turns 40 today. On November 24, 1974 a young paleoanthropologist named Donald Johanson was returning to camp. He glanced over his shoulder and something caught his eye. A bit of bone protruding from the sloping ground.

Human residence at high altitude for prolonged periods is confirmed in a Podcast issued by the journal Science this week.

The finding of the oldest human genetic material is reported this week. A femoral shaft (thigh bone without ends to fit with hip and knee)was found in Siberia and dated to 45,000 years ago.

On the tenth anniversary of the announcement of a close human relative, Homo floresiensis, nicknamed The Hobbit, noted paleoanthropologist Chris Stringer revisits the find in an article in Nature this week.