Dave Taylor's African Safari: The Missing Factor: Human Beings - Early Hominids

The Missing Factor: Human Beings
Early Hominids
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Along the shores of this bygone lake walked two species of hominids. Australopithecus boisei (robustus) was the larger of the two. It had massive cheek bones that supported enlarged jaw muscles anchored by a bony crest on the top of its skull. This species possessed the largest teeth of any hominid. This hominid was primarily a plant eater, specializing in coarse vegetable foods. The lakeshore trees provided them with fruit, nuts, shade and shelter from predators. They may well have climbed into the trees to sleep.

The brain case was 500 cubic centimeters ( our brain case is 1400 cc.), just short of the size assigned to Homo. It was this species that Louis and Mary Leakey discovered in 1959. The discovery propelled the Leakeys to fame and made Olduvai Gorge world famous.

The Leakeys also uncovered fossil skulls of another hominid species here. They gave this other species the name Homo habilus. The genus Homo means that this animal was a member of our direct ancestors. It made tools. The fossil beds were loaded with its stone tools. To many, the tools look just like rocks but to a trained eye the tools show signs of being altered by being hammered. The resultant tools had a sharp edge used for cutting meat off bones. Some were rounded and used as hammers to crack bones, while others were used as weapons and thrown at the prey.

Handy Man

H. habilus (also known as "handy man") had a flattened face and large molars that resembled the australopithecines. It still had an "ape-like" (long arms and a small body) appearance.

H. habilus' brain case, however, was larger in size (600 to 750 cc.) though it was much smaller than A. boisei. A male H. habilus was 132 centimeters (4 feet 4 inches) tall and weighed 37 kilograms (82 lb.). The female was 117 centimeters (3 feet 10 inches) and weighed 39 kilograms (87 lb.). The male A. boisei were 137 centimeters (4 feet 6 inches) tall and weighed 49 kilograms (108 lb.). Females of that species were 94 centimeters (4 feet 1 inch) and weighed 32 kilograms (71 lb.).

The first "tools’’ date from the time A. boisei appears in Olduvai's layers some 2.6 million years ago. But was he the tool maker? Leaky didn't think so. He thinks the tools were made by H. habilus. Habilus first appears in the fossil records at Olduvai only one million years later. Perhaps he left tools but no fossilized bones from 2.6 million years ago.

A Tool User

The hand of A. boisei could certainly have held a tool and indeed may have used a stone from time to time to break open a scavenged bone or used a stick to dig. However, most agree that it lacked the brain capacity to conceive of creating a stone tool.

H. habilus is credited with being the tool user. Was the species also a hunter? Its teeth indicate a more omnivorous diet than the mainly vegetarian one of A. boisei. It is probable that it killed smaller game and perhaps scavenged the kills of larger predators. It was likely not capable of hunting larger wildebeest-sized animals on its own.

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