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Short Wave

Stone Age To Bone Age?

Short Wave

NPR

Daily News, Nature, Life Sciences, Astronomy, Science, News

4.7 β€’ 6K Ratings

πŸ—“οΈ 7 March 2025

⏱️ 10 minutes

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Summary

Archeologists know early humans used stone to make tools long before the time of Homo sapiens. But a new discovery out this week in Nature suggests early humans in eastern Africa were also using animal bones – one million years earlier than researchers previously thought. The finding suggests that these early humans were intentionally shaping animal materials – like elephant and hippopotamus bones – to make tools and that it could indicate advancements in early human cognition.

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Transcript

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0:24.2

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0:29.2

Hey, shortwavers, Rachel Carlson here and Emily Kwong with our biweekly Science News Roundup

0:34.8

featuring the hosts of All Things Considered.

0:37.1

And today we have

0:37.8

Ari Shapiro. Round me up. Welcome to the shortwave rodeo. Here we go. Where we have for you a

0:44.2

new flower, the woolly devil, found in a national park. Drinking lemonade in virtual reality. Yum.

0:51.3

And how early humans may have made tools out of bone, 1.5 million years ago.

0:57.1

Wild.

0:57.6

All that on this episode of Shortwave, the science podcast from NPR.

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