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'Earliest evidence' of elephant butchery at Olduvai Gorge shared in new study
Fox News • • health
Key Points:
- A recent study published in eLife presents the earliest direct evidence of proboscidean butchery, revealing that early humans butchered extinct elephant species, Elephas recki, nearly 1.8 million years ago.
- The discovery was made at Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, where stone tools were found alongside elephant bones, suggesting systematic processing of large animal carcasses by early human ancestors.
- This behavior indicates a strategic adaptation to exploiting megafaunal resources, providing significant food surpluses that likely contributed to early human survival and social organization.
- The study highlights that this early butchery marks a unique evolutionary development without a direct modern equivalent, coinciding with more complex human occupation sites and ecological transformations.
- These findings add to the growing understanding of early human diets and their technological and social evolution in the Pleistocene epoch.
