Word: makapansgat
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...decade the mammoth limestone caves of the Makapansgat Valley in South Africa (TIME, June 20, 1955) have been yielding the bones and implements of a remarkably human creature known to anthropologists as Australopithecus prometheus (African...
Prometheus killed with the bones of his victims: the jawbones of prehistoric buffalos, zebras and giraffes, the tusks of hyenas and saber-toothed tigers; stiletto-sharp shattered thighbones. For a small creature, he struck his victims with amazing force. One Makapansgat cave contains the skull of a young man-ape who was killed, Dr. Dart believes, with a bludgeon blow to the chin that shattered the jaw on both sides of the face and knocked out all front teeth...
...develop "an adequate number of distinctive gestures and signals . . . for communicating [his] intentions while assembling and employing tools . . . and dividing the spoils of the chase." His proudest accomplishment may even have been the use of fire. Dr. Dart has discovered a number of charred animal bones in the Makapansgat caves which he thinks might have been scorched in a man-ape bonfire...
...theory that man originated in Africa got a boost when a nearly complete lower jaw of Australopithecus prometheus was found at Makapansgat in the Transvaal this month. Anthropologists now have most of the skull parts (from different individuals) of a "proto-man" who probably lived one million years ago, along with saber-toothed tigers and giant hyenas. Professor Raymond A. Dart of Witwatersrand University gave Prometheus his name because some of his bones contained free carbon, which indicates that they had been burned, and hints at the use of fire...
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