Potatools

 Hi, I'm not dead=D 

In Biology today we made stone tools out of potatoes =D. It was fun. 

Our tools =D

In order from left to right, we have examples from the Oldowan, Acheulean, Mousteruan, and Upper Paleolithic eras. 

The Oldowan tools are associated with Homo Habilis and possibly (but controversially) late Australopithecines in east Africa. They appear from 2.7 - 1.7 million years ago. These are the first pieces of evidence of tool use we have. However, it is likely earlier hominins would have used tools made out of wood as it was softer and easier to manipulate. However, these don't fossilise very well, so that is just a theory. The Oldowan-era tools were made by striking two stones together to get a sharp edge. As you can maybe see in the picture, they are very rough and have lots of the original stone shape. They were made with fewer than 5-6 blows. They were used for cutting and scraping meat off of animal carcasses, or cracking open bones to reach the marrow, giving them access to food that other species did not. This would help them get more energy which could be used to evolve further. =D

The Acheulean tools are next. these are associated with Homo Erectus and Homo Ergaster. These were found across Africa and much of Asia and Europe around roughly 1.7 million - 100,000 years ago. These tools are fully shaped and used ~50 strikes. They required more planning and time than the Oldowan tools which implies that they were developing some form of patients.  They also required precision which shows the hominins getting better with their hands. These tools allow for better processing of meat (e.g. carving meat for transport), access to different food sources and potentially it gave them defence from predators. All these things would allow both physical evolution and possibly cultural evolution. 

Moving to the Mousterian era (600,000 - 40,000 years ago), we see tools requiring around 150 blows. They are associated with the Neanderthals who had learned to be picky about the rocks and used primarily flint as it flakes and chips in a predictable manner. Tools from this era have well-worked edges often made with tools made for making other tools. The Cognitive abilty (Planning, learning, and teaching skills) and technical skills required to make these tools advanced and became more robust as the Mousterian period deveolped. This would mean that the hominins were getting smarter and were having some form of commuictaiton. 

The Upper Paleolithic era saw a huge and diverse range of tools being made. This time period of tools is associated with Homo Sapiens begining approximately 50,000 years ago. These tools where finly worked, requireing more than 250 blows per tool. This is also when Hominins started using other things with their stones to create tools (Wood, Ivory, Antler, etc) Many tools where created with very fine detail, creating things like fish hooks and sewing needles, or worked into specific shapes in order to fit into another component. (stone arrow heads or spear heads to go on wooden handles.) The materials to create these tools were often transported over long distances which implies a need for commuincation and orgniseation. It could also be showing communication between groups of H. Sapiens. 

Boom! Facts haha. Making these Potatools was really fun, even if I made Miss debate wheather or not she should give me a knife >=) 

I would love to do this again with actual stones, but I know we can't in school. =( oh well.