Ammon News - An assemblage of tools found in Tanzania that was fashioned about 1.5 million years ago from the limb bones of elephants and hippos reveals what scientists are calling a technological breakthrough for the human evolutionary lineage - systematic production of implements made from a material other than stone.

The 27 tools, discovered at a rich paleoanthropological site called Olduvai Gorge, were probably created by Homo erectus, an early human species with body proportions similar to our species Homo sapiens, according to the researchers.

The implements, which were up to 15 inches (37.5 cm) long and came in a variety of sharp and heavy-duty forms, may have been used for purposes including butchering animal carcasses for food, they said.

The adoption of tools heralded the dawn of technology, and the oldest-known stone tools date to at least 3.3 million years ago. There have been examples of sporadic use of tools made from bone dating to about 2 million years ago, but the Olduvai Gorge discovery represents the earliest example of systematic production of such implements - by about 1.1 million years.

The Olduvai Gorge bone tools were found alongside various stone implements made around the same time.

The addition of bone implements to the human tool kit was an important moment, according to the researchers, reflecting cognitive advances and growing technological skills as well as a recognition that animals can provide a source not only of meat but of raw materials.

"Precise anatomical knowledge and understanding of bone morphology and structure is suggested by preference given to thick limb bones," said archeologist Ignacio de la Torre of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), lead author of the study published on Wednesday in the journal Nature, opens new tab.

Limb bones are the densest and strongest kind.

The hominins who made the Olduvai Gorge bone tools used a technique similar to how stone tools are made - chipping away small flakes to form sharp edges in a process called knapping. Reuters