HUMAN EVOLUTION 



decision, with the jawbone of a wildebeest. I'll let the matter 

 go by saying that, as soon as we find upright, bipedal primates, 

 we also find evidence that they were using tools. The australo- 

 pithecines achieved the visual and postural apparatus which 

 allowed tree and controlled use of the hands. 



3. Manipulation 



We now know that small-brained, bipedal hominids of the 

 australopithecine family manufactured tools, following a stand- 

 ardized pattern. The best evidence is from the living site occu- 

 pied by Zinjantliropus in Lower Pleistocene times in the Olduvai 

 Gorge in Tanganyika. This ancient living site, once occupied 

 by near-men, was discovered and excavated by Mary and Louis 

 Leakey in the summer of 1959. A nearly complete skull and 

 tibia of a near-man were found in association with nine pebble 

 tools of Oldowan culture and 176 waste flakes which had re- 

 sulted from the making of the tools on the spot. The raw 

 material for these tools was not available nearby and had to be 

 transported from a distance. 



Proconsul may have made occasional use of stones and sticks 

 as temporary tools, after the fashion of the living monkeys and 

 apes. There is no evidence that Proconsul manufactured tools. 

 By Pleistocene times, as we have just seen, the australopithecines 

 engaged in tool manufacture. If Dart is right, these near-men 

 also made extensive use of tools improvised from the bones, 

 horns, and teeth of the mammals they killed for food. Thou- 

 sands of artificially broken pieces of stone and some recognizable 

 stone implements were found in association with Pithecan- 

 thropus in the cave deposits of Choukoutien. Both flakes and 

 cores were used, and some of the flakes were trimmed into points 

 or scrapers. Rough choppers were made by removing flakes 

 from lumps of quartzite. Although the Pithecanthropus were 

 regular and systematic tool makers, they seemingly made little 

 attempt to standardize the tools. With the arrival of the genus 

 Homo, tools of standardized variety and specialized purpose 

 were extensively manufactured. 



A good start toward precise manipulation was achieved by 

 quadrupedal apes like Proconsul. When they sat up, their 



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