Declaring The Discovery Of A New Species Can Get Tricky

"May was an exciting month for new discoveries that add to our knowledge of human evolution during the period around 3 million years ago. This is before the origin of the genus Homo, 2.8 million years ago, and during the time when Australopithecus afarensis (the famous "Lucy") lived in East Africa."

"On May 21, details of 3.3-million-year-old stone tools from Kenya — the oldest yet discovered — were published by Sonia Harmand and her colleagues in the journal Nature. The tools consist of sharp flakes, large cores and flat anvils. According to an NPR report, 'While they weren't as sophisticated as tools that have been associated with the first humans, they were definitely crafted intentionally.'"

"That intentionally-fashioned tools predate our genus doesn't surprise me; it makes abundant evolutionary sense, given what we know of sophisticated tool-use and tool-making among animals as diverse as chimpanzees and birds."