Our ancestors used tools in ways that we might not use them now. Also, language could have helped our ancestors evolve.

GENIUS HOUR 2015

BREINDEL CADJA

• According to a study by college students, language helped some ancestors create things called Oldowan Tools. How did it help people create tools? It is said that language was made to make it easier for toolmakers. Included in the study, the college students made stone tools, some using language, others not. The result was that the people that used language could make the effective tools. 

How has language helped our ancestors evolve?

• The Hominids were the ancestors that were thought to have started language, about 1.75 million years ago. They crafted tools called Acheulean Tools. One of the tools were hand axes made of stone. While the tool making evolved, language evolved. You could say they evolved together. 

Hominids

This is a hominid.

• I got a lot of information about my topic from my conversation with Michael Balter. He gave me a great answer to the question "How has language helped our ancestors evolve?" I'm going to paraphrase what he told me.

• He told me that most experts have thought that language has helped our ancestors speak to each other and communicate. With language, we'd have a better chance of surviving.

• Michael also told me that some experts argue that only modern humans had had language: the Homo sapiens. 

My conversation with Michael Balter

• But, the truth is that we never will know, because unlike skeletons, words don't fossilize! We can all guess from other types of communication, like significant objects being created like modern humans did 100,000 years ago. 

My conversation with Michael Balter, continued

• The ax was a tool that our ancestors used back then, but they are different now. They used stone hand axes, like I said before, and they were called Acheulean Tools. The stone was chipped from volcanic rock by a nearby stream. Many of these axes were found on a shore of Lake Turkana, in Kenya.  
• Nowadays, you see them with a long wood handle and the copper, iron, bronze or steel to chop whatever you wanted to chop, for example, wood. 

Tools Our Ancestors Used That We Use Now (the ax)

• Another tool our ancestors used that we use now is the hammer. The study led by Matthew Skinner from the University of Kent in Canterbury, United Kingdom. He compared the "internal structure" of the hand bones of modern humans, apes, Neanderthals, and the early human species. What they found was that the hand bones of the Australopithecus africanus showed signs of hammer holding in the spongy bone. 

The Hammer

• A third tool that our ancestors used that we use now: our hands! I am going to show you the different hands of our ancestors. Studies have shown that Lucy, the Australopithecus africanus were one of the types of ancestors that used their hands for tools. 

The Hand

How the Tools Work

• Our ancestors used stone axes for slaughtering zebras. 
• Our ancestors used the hammer to make stone axes. They would slam the hammer onto a stone "core", producing a "flake" which was the ax, then use the ax to butcher animals, such as zebras, as I have mentioned above. The hammer looked like this.
• Our ancestors used their hands for gripping hammers, just like I said earlier, with the picture in the previous slide.
• All the things I just listed were all very important to our ancestors. Without their hands, they couldn't grip hammers to make stone axes. Without the axes, they couldn't butcher animals, giving them no food.

the hammer

Works Cited

"Google." Google. Web. 13 Apr. 2015. <https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&rlz=1CAACAG_enUS603US605&ion=1&espv=2&es_th=1&ie=UTF-8&safe=active&ssui=on#q=keep calm and cite your sources&es_th=1&safe=active&ssui=on>.

"Human Language May Have Evolved To Help Our Ancestors Make Tools - Slashdot." Human Language May Have Evolved To Help Our Ancestors Make Tools - Slashdot. Web. 13 Apr. 2015. <http://science.slashdot.org/story/15/01/13/2356210/human-language-may-have-evolved-to-help-our-ancestors-make-tools>.

"Human Language May Have Evolved to Help Our Ancestors Make Tools." Human Language May Have Evolved to Help Our Ancestors Make Tools. Web. 13 Apr. 2015. <http://news.sciencemag.org/archaeology/2015/01/human-language-may-have-evolved-help-our-ancestors-make-tools>.

Welsh, By Jennifer. "Human Ancestors Used Fine-Crafted Tools to Butcher Zebras." LiveScience. TechMedia Network, 31 Aug. 2011. Web. 13 Apr. 2015. <http://www.livescience.com/15851-acheulean-hand-axes-erectus.html>.

"When Did Human Speech Evolve?" NPR. NPR. Web. 13 Apr. 2015. <http://www.npr.org/blogs/13.7/2013/09/05/219236801/when-did-human-speech-evolve>.

Works Cited

By Dan Vergano, National Geographic PUBLISHED January 22, 2015. "Human Ancestors May Have Used Tools Half-Million Years Earlier Than Thought." National Geographic. National Geographic Society. Web. 14 Apr. 2015. <http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2015/01/140122-human-tools-hands-ancient-science/>.

Dailymail.com, Ellie Zolfagharifard For. "Early Ancestors Used Their Hands like Modern HUMANS: Fossils of Three Million-year-old Species Reveal They Could Grip Tools." Mail Online. Associated Newspapers, 22 Jan. 2015. Web. 14 Apr. 2015. <http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2922101/Our-early-ancestors-used-hands-like-humans-Fossils-three-million-year-old-species-reveal-grip-tools.html>.

"Scientists Say Our Ancestors Used Tools Earlier than Thought." Msnbc.com. 31 Aug. 2011. Web. 14 Apr. 2015. <http://www.nbcnews.com/id/44345865/ns/technology_and_science-science/t/scientists-say-our-ancestors-used-tools-earlier-thought/#.VQxbQ033-iw>.

"Scientists Say Our Ancestors Used Tools Earlier than Thought." Msnbc.com. 31 Aug. 2011. Web. 14 Apr. 2015. <http://www.nbcnews.com/id/44345865/ns/technology_and_science-science/t/scientists-say-our-ancestors-used-tools-earlier-thought/#.VQxbQ033-iw>.

Welsh, By Jennifer. "Human Ancestors Used Fine-Crafted Tools to Butcher Zebras." LiveScience. TechMedia Network, 31 Aug. 2011. Web. 14 Apr. 2015. <http://www.livescience.com/15851-acheulean-hand-axes-erectus.html>.

Works Cited

"Oldowan and Acheulean Stone Tools." Museum of Anthropology, College of Arts and Science, University of Missouri. Web. 14 Apr. 2015. <http://anthromuseum.missouri.edu/minigalleries/handaxes/intro.shtml>.

http://iamdfish.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Ancient-Hammer.jpg

Works Cited

That's my Genius Hour. But who knows? Maybe our ancestors didn't use the tools that I just mentioned. Maybe language didn't help our ancestors evolve. We'll never know.

Any questions?