ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, November 20, 1996 TAG: 9611200045
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-9 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: NEW YORK
SOURCE: Associated Press
A jaw bone found in Ethiopia is the oldest positively dated fossil in the immediate human family and suggests that the earliest members of that group, the genus Homo, may have been the world's first toolmakers.
The 2.33 million-year-old upper jaw was found on a hillside along with a scattering of crude stone tools. It extends the Homo lineage by 400,000 years, say researchers from the Institute of Human Origins in Berkeley, Calif. They described the fossil, discovered two years ago, in the December issue of the Journal of Human Evolution.
``It's one piece of the puzzle in a time period about which we know very little,'' said William Kimbel, who directed the discovery and analysis of the fossil.
As the oldest fossil associated with tools, the find strengthens the idea that direct ancestors of modern humans, rather than a closely related group known as the australopithecines, developed toolmaking between 2 million and 3 million years ago. The issue has been a difficult one because tools as much as 2.35 million years old have been found, but never in association with human remains.
LENGTH: Short : 32 linesby CNB