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A Handy Bunch: Tools, Thumbs Helped Us Thrive
from NPR
You could say human evolution started when the first brave ape came down from the trees. But scientists have long said that it was making tools that really set humans apart. And if tools define our species, then it's our hands we have to thank.
It took millions of years for our hands to go from grasping tree limbs to writing poetry. And scientists believe that making stone tools helped propel that evolution.
At George Washington University, anthropologist Erin Marie Williams is trying to find out how that evolution took place. How did tool-making help shape our hands and wrists? She studies flint-knapping--the art of making stone tools the way our ancestors did.
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