Chimps Used Simple Tools 5 Million Years Ago

David_Bloom writes: "Evidence that chimps have been using simple tools over 500 million years ago has been unveiled by an archeological dig in West Africa. Tragically, it will probably be another 500 million years before my mom figures out how to use the simple Windows taskbar. [sigh]" Update: 05/23 22:45 GMT by T : Actually, as the linked article really says, that should be five million, rather than 500 million.

Comments

500 = 5

[rw2]

But you were only off by a factor of 100. Probably and astrophysicist, eh?

By any chance...

[Snafoo]

By any chance, is your Mom named 'Lucy'?

Too Bad

[erasmus_]

It's too bad most of the Slashdot crowd is so progressive. This is one of those perfect articles to get into flame wars about whether or not evolution really happened. And how every thing that seems to contradict the Biblical version of time is placed on this earth as "a test of faith."

Regardless, this is clearly fascinating. Although in my mind it raises the question of why that species has not advanced significantly more in all this time. I realize the article states that the researchers will look for differences in modern behavior, but my guess is that their methods are still basically the same.

Which I guess is good for us, as who wants super-monkeys taking away all of our jobs. Although if they could just comment their code, I might give them a shot.

From the article

[ynotds]

at the close of what is known as the Miocene era, when Ice Age conditions cooled the planet

Any paleontologist worth their salt will be so familiar with the stratigraphic boundaries between the various geological epochs, including the Miocene, that they aren't going to think to give their dating a special mention, especially not in a CNN one page summary.