Evidence of termite foraging by Swartkrans early hominids.

Previous studies have suggested that modified bones from the Lower Paleolithic sites of Swartkrans and Sterkfontein in South Africa represent the oldest known bone tools and that they were used by Australopithecus robustus to dig up tubers. Macroscopic and microscopic analysis of the wear patterns on the purported bone tools, pseudo bone tools produced naturally by known taphonomic processes, and experimentally used bone tools confirm the anthropic origin of the modifications. However, our analysis suggests that these tools were used to dig into termite mounds, rather than to dig for tubers. This result indicates that early hominids from southern Africa maintained a behavioral pattern involving a bone tool material culture that may have persisted for a long period and strongly supports the role of insectivory in the early hominid diet.

[1]  D. Roe.  Studies in the Upper Palaeolithic of Britain and northwest Europe , 1986 .

[2]  R. Klein.  The Fauna and Overall Interpretation of the “Cutting 10” Acheulean Site at Elandsfontein (Hopefield), Southwestern Cape Province, South Africa , 1978, Quaternary Research.

[3]  C. Stringer,et al.  Evidence of sea-level change from coastal caves with raised beach deposits, terrestrial faunas and dated stalagmites , 1987 .

[4]  F. Grine.  Dental evidence for dietary differences in Australopithecus and Paranthropus: a quantitative analysis of permanent molar microwear , 1986 .

[5]  H. Cooke,et al.  THE ASSOCIATED FAUNA AND CULTURE OF THE VLAKKRAAL THERMAL SPRINGS, O.F.S , 1942 .

[6]  L. Aiello,et al.  The Expensive-Tissue Hypothesis: The Brain and the Digestive System in Human and Primate Evolution , 1995, Current Anthropology.

[7]  R. Klein,et al.  The bovids from Elandsfontein, South Africa, and their implications for the age, palaeoenvironment, and origins of the site , 1991 .

[8]  J. Lee-Thorp,et al.  Isotopic evidence for the diet of an early hominid, Australopithecus africanus. , 1999, Science.

[9]  J. Lee-Thorp,et al.  The hunters and the hunted revisited. , 2000, Journal of human evolution.

[10]  F. Grine,et al.  Trophic differences between 'gracile' and 'robust' Australopithecines: A scanning electron microscope analysis of occlusal events , 1981 .

[11]  C. K. Brain,et al.  New Finds at the Swartkrans Australopithecine Site (contd): More Evidence of an Advanced Hominid at Swartkrans , 1970, Nature.

[12]  K. Kuman,et al.  Stratigraphy, artefact industries and hominid associations for Sterkfontein, member 5. , 2000, Journal of human evolution.

[13]  E Trinkaus,et al.  Species attribution of the Swartkrans member 1 first metacarpals: SK84 and SKX 5020. , 1990, American journal of physical anthropology.

[14]  H. Bunn.  Patterns of skeletal representation and hominid subsistence activities at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania, and Koobi Fora, Kenya , 1986 .

[15]  R. Klein.  A Preliminary Report on the 'Middle Stone Age' Open-Air Site of Duinefontein 2 [Melkbosstrand, South-Western Cape Province, South Africa] , 1976 .

[16]  C. K. Brain,et al.  New evidence of early hominids, their culture and environment from the Swartkrans cave, South Africa , 1988 .

[17]  Norman E. Hickin,et al.  Termites : a world problem , 1971 .

[18]  N. E. Hickin.  Termites-a world problem. London, UK, Hutchinson. , 1971 .

[19]  R. Potts.  Early hominid activities at Olduvai , 1988 .

[20]  A. Whiten,et al.  Cultures in chimpanzees , 1999, Nature.

[21]  T. White.  Prehistoric cannibalism at Mancos 5MTUMR-2346 , 1993 .

[22]  M. Leakey,et al.  Excavations in beds I and II, 1960-1963 , 1971 .

[23]  W. V. Harris.  Termites : their recognition and control , 1971 .

[24]  K. E. Lee,et al.  Termites and soils. London, UK, Academic Press. , 1971 .

[25]  W. McGrew,et al.  Brief report: Chimpanzees, tools, and termites: New record from Gabon , 1983, American journal of primatology.

[26]  J. Tooby,et al.  Characteristics of an Early Hominid Scavenging Niche [and Comments and Reply] , 1987, Current Anthropology.

[27]  K. E. Lee,et al.  Termites and Soils , 1971 .

[28]  M. Mills,et al.  An analysis of bones collected at hyaena breeding dens in the Gemsbok National Parks (Mammalia: Carnivora) , 1977 .

[29]  C. K. Brain.  New Finds at the Swartkrans Australopithecine Site , 1970, Nature.

[30]  L. Binford.  Bones: Ancient Men and Modern Myths , 1981 .

[31]  J. Robinson.  A Bone Implement from Sterkfontein , 1959, Nature.

[32]  W. McGrew.  Chimpanzee Material Culture: Implications for Human Evolution , 1992 .

[33]  A. Behrensmeyer,et al.  Trampling as a cause of bone surface damage and pseudo-cutmarks , 1986, Nature.

[34]  C. K. Brain,et al.  Swartkrans. A cave's chronicle of early man , 1994 .

[35]  C. K. Brain.  The Hunters or the Hunted?: An Introduction to African Cave Taphonomy , 1983, Geological Magazine.

[36]  K. Kuman,et al.  Florisbad—New investigations at a middle stone age Hominid Site in South Africa , 1986 .