Introducing the brain: half a brain; new erectus paper (Introduction)

by David Turell , Thursday, March 05, 2020, 21:40 (1722 days ago) @ David Turell

Shows how archaeologists think about brains and the accompanying artifacts:

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2236527-homo-erectus-used-two-different-kinds-of-s...

"The discovery of skull fragments alongside different types of stone tools in Ethiopia sheds new light on the lifestyle of the ancient hominin Homo erectus. It dispels the idea that each hominin species used just one type of tool technology and indicates that H. erectus was more behaviourally flexible than we thought.

"Sileshi Semaw at the National Centre for Research on Human Evolution in Spain and his colleagues identified two H. erectus skulls at a site in Gona, Ethiopia. One was 1.26 million years old and the other dated back at least 1.5 million years. Unusually, the skulls were found directly alongside various stone tools.

“'This is good evidence that these hominins were the creators of those artefacts,” says Michael Rogers at Southern Connecticut State University, who was part of team that made the discovery. “That means you can get a better handle on what kind of tools they were really using.” (my bold)

"H. erectus evolved around 2 million years ago in Africa and was one of the first species in our genus, Homo. Compared with earlier hominins, members of this species had relatively large brains and were adept tool-makers. They invented the so-called Acheulian tools, such as teardrop-shaped hand axes, which superseded the older and simpler Oldowan tools.

"Hand axes are a multipurpose tool, a kind of Stone Age Swiss army knife. It was thought that once these sophisticated implements had been invented, H. erectus stopped using the more primitive Oldowan tools, which are sharp-edged stone flakes. [made first by H habilis]

"The discoveries at Gona dispel this notion, showing that both types of tool were used at the same time. “They were using both technologies as they saw fit,” says Semaw."

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Comment: This article shows the mind-set of Archaeologists: the fossils that are found with the artifacts created the artifacts, but newer species still used older species artifacts, which obviously were carried over by the newer species. Erectus knew what habilis created and used. I see no support for your evolution of brain size theory.