Hippopotamus butchery with Oldowan tools at Nyayanga
Carnicería de hipopótamo con útiles oldowayenses en Nyayanga
- Date
- c. 2.9 Ma · confidence medium
- Place
- Nyayanga, Homa Peninsula, Homa Bay, Kenya
- Credited to
- Oldowan hominins (with Paranthropus at the site)
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
Stone tools and cut marks on hippopotamus bones about 2.9 Ma old, among the oldest evidence of Oldowan industry outside Afar. The only hominin fossils at the site are Paranthropus teeth.
Plummer and colleagues (Science, 2023) date the layer to 3.0-2.6 Ma. Paranthropus authorship is an inference from association, not proof.
What it led to
- extension of stone tool use to large prey and to more than one hominin genus
- revision of the idea that only Homo made and used Oldowan tools