David R. Braun a,1, John W. K. Harris b, Naomi E. Levin c, Jack T. McCoy b, Andy I. R. Herries d, Marion K. Bamford e, Laura C. Bishop f, Brian G. Richmond g,h, and Mzalendo Kibunjia i
-Author Affiliations
aArchaeology Department, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch 7701, South Africa;
bAnthropology Department, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ 08901;
cDepartment of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218;
dUniversity of New South Wales Archaeomagnetism Laboratory, Integrative Palaeoecological and Anthropological Studies, School of Medical Sciences, University of New South Wales, Kensington 2052, Australia;
eBernard Price Institute Palaeontology, University of the Witwatersrand, 2050, Johannesburg, South Africa;
fResearch Centre in Evolutionary Anthropology and Palaeoecology, School of Natural Sciences and Psychology, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool L3 3AF, United Kingdom;
gCenter for the Advanced Study of Hominid Paleobiology, Department of Anthropology, George Washington University, Washington, DC 20052;
hHuman Origins Program, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20052; and
iDivision of Sites and Monuments, National Museums of Kenya, 40658-00100 Nairobi, Kenya
Edited by Richard G. Klein, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, and approved April 23, 2010 (received for review February 20, 2010)
Abstract
The manufacture of stone tools and their use to access animal tissues by Pliocene hominins marks the origin of a key adaptation in human evolutionary history. Here we report an in situ archaeological assemblage from the Koobi Fora Formation in northern Kenya that provides a unique combination of faunal remains, some with direct evidence of butchery, and Oldowan artifacts, which are well dated to 1.95 Ma. This site provides the oldest in situ evidence that hominins, predating Homo erectus, enjoyed access to carcasses of terrestrial and aquatic animals that they butchered in a well-watered habitat. It also provides the earliest definitive evidence of the incorporation into the hominin diet of various aquatic animals including turtles, crocodiles, and fish, which are rich sources of specific nutrients needed in human brain growth. The evidence here shows that these critical brain-growth compounds were part of the diets of hominins before the appearance of Homo ergaster/erectus and could have played an important role in the evolution of larger brains in the early history of our lineage.
Oldowan Paleolithic stone tools paleomagnetism
Footnotes
1To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail:david.braun@uct.ac.za.
Author contributions: D.R.B., J.W.K.H., N.E.L., J.T.M., L.C.B., B.G.R., and M.K. designed research; D.R.B., J.W.K.H., N.E.L., J.T.M., A.I.R.H., M.K.B., L.C.B., B.G.R., and M.K. performed research; D.R.B., J.W.K.H., N.E.L., J.T.M., M.K.B., B.G.R., and M.K. conducted fieldwork that led to the discovery of the site; N.E.L. and A.I.R.H. collected and anlayzed geological and geochronological data.; J.T.M. conducted taphonomic analysis of faunal materials; D.R.B., N.E.L., J.T.M., A.I.R.H., M.K.B., L.C.B., B.G.R., and M.K. analyzed data; and D.R.B., J.W.K.H., N.E.L., J.T.M., A.I.R.H., M.K.B., L.C.B., B.G.R., and M.K. wrote the paper.
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
This article is a PNAS Direct Submission.
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