Editing Lower Paleolithic (section)

==Gelasian==
{{further|Gelasian|Homo habilis|Olduvai Gorge}}

The Lower Paleolithic began with the appearance of the first [[stone tool]]s in the world. Formerly associated with the emergence of ''[[Homo habilis]]'', some 2.8 million years ago, this date has been pushed back significantly by finds of the early 2000s,<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Semaw | first1 = S. | last2 = Rogers | first2 = M. J. | last3 = Quade | first3 = J. | last4 = Renne | first4 = P. R. | last5 = Butler | first5 = R. F. | last6 = Domínguez-Rodrigo | first6 = M. | last7 = Stout | first7 = D. | last8 = Hart | first8 = W. S. | last9 = Pickering | first9 = T.|display-authors=etal| year = 2003 | title = 2.6-Million-year-old stone tools and associated bones from OGS-6 and OGS-7, Gona, Afar, Ethiopia | journal = Journal of Human Evolution | volume = 45 | issue = 2| pages = 169–177 | doi = 10.1016/S0047-2484(03)00093-9 | pmid = 14529651  | bibcode = 2003JHumE..45..169S }}</ref> the [[Oldowan]] or Mode 1 horizon, long considered the oldest type of lithic industry, is now considered to have developed from about 2.6 million years ago, with the beginning [[Gelasian]] ([[Lower Pleistocene]]), possibly first used by  [[australopithecine]] forebears of the genus ''[[Homo]]'' (such as ''[[Australopithecus garhi]]'').

However, even older tools were later discovered at the single site of [[Lomekwi 3]] in [[Kenya]], in 2015, dated to as early as 3.3 million years ago. As such, they would predate the Pleistocene (the Gelasian), and fall into the late [[Pliocene]] (the [[Piacenzian]]).<ref name="Harmand 2015" />

The early members of the genus ''Homo'' produced primitive tools, summarized under the Oldowan industry, which remained dominant for nearly a million years, from about 2.5 to 1.7 million years ago. ''Homo habilis'' is assumed to have lived primarily on [[scavenging]], using tools to cleave meat off carrion or to break bones  to extract the [[Bone marrow|marrow]].

The move from the mostly [[frugivorous]] or [[omnivorous]] diet of hominin ''Australopithecus'' to the [[carnivorous]] scavenging lifestyle of early ''Homo'' has been explained by the climate changes in [[East Africa]] associated with the [[Quaternary glaciation]]. Decreasing oceanic evaporation  produced  a drier climate and the expansion of the [[savannah]] at the expense of forests. Reduced availability of fruits stimulated some proto-[[australopithecines]] to search out new food sources found in the drier savannah ecology. [[Derek Bickerton]] (2009) has designated to this period the  move from simple [[animal communication systems]] found in all [[great apes]] to the earliest form of symbolic communication systems capable of displacement (referring to items not currently within sensory perception) and motivated by the need to "recruit"  group members for scavenging large carcasses.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bickerton |first1=Derek |title=Adam's Tongue: How Humans Made Language, How Language Made Humans |date=2009 |publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux |isbn=978-1-4299-3029-1 }}{{page needed|date=October 2022}}</ref>

''[[Homo erectus]]'' appeared by about 1.8 million years ago, via the transitional variety ''[[Homo ergaster]]''.