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Return to *History 8 Human Origins from Bone From a Dry Sea

1. communication

In order to communicate with her tribe, Li "yelled the warning Big wave, then added the snapped-off hoot that meant Shark!" (1, 2). The tribe had many other calls as well, including sounds for Praise and Sorry. This type of communication, made up of shouts and calls, was common where Li was on the evolutionary tree. In fact, the development of language from "a guttural to a more complex and recognizable form of communication" didn't occur until "a key period of cognitive and technological advancement that occurred 50,000 to 70,000 years ago" (2).

2. Use of stones

Stones were often used as tools in Li's time. After Ma-ma found mussels to eat, Li "heard the crack of shells being pounded open" (1, 2) by stones. "[The] oldest stone tools made by hominins appeared in Africa about 2.5 million years ago" (2) with the Homo Habilis.

3. development of thought

Li thinks up a creative way to defeat a shark, yet she gets scolded for the things she did. However, she "knew what she had done, and why. She understood that it had not been an accident. She realized too that the others would not understand" (1, 7). Li might've been one of the first hominids to develop real thought, along with an understanding and curiosity about her surroundings. This development occurred originally because of the addition of meat to the hominids' diet. "'What we think is that this dietary change around 2.3 million years ago was one of the major significant factors in the evolution of our own species,'" (3) anthropologist Leslie Aiello says. Meat provides much more calories and fat than plants do, so the consumption of it led to more energy being given to the brain for development.

Izzy Andrews

Sources:

1) A Bone from a Dry Sea, with the page number separated by a comma (source, page number)

2) https://genographic.nationalgeographic.com/early-human-milestones/

3) http://www.npr.org/2010/08/02/128849908/food-for-thought-meat-based-diet-made-us-smarter