JENA, GERMANY—Court news service An international team of researchers has discovered stone tools dating back two to 1.8 million years in Ewass Oldupa, Tanzania, in the western part of the Oldupai Gorge, a 28-mile-long canyon known for its hominin fossils. Recovered from layers of layered sediments, the artifacts are the oldest stone tools found to date in the gorge. Tools include gravel and gravel cores, sharp-edged flakes and polyhedral pebbles. Fossils of wild cattle, pigs, hippos, panthers, lions, hyenas, primates, reptiles and birds have also been discovered in layers, along with evidence of habitat change over 200,000 years. Habitats included river and lake systems, fern meadows, forests, palm groves, dry steppes and evidence of natural burning. The recurrence of Oldowan instruments in these strata suggests that hominins moved in and out of the area during periods of volcanic activity and as the environment changed. “We see that we have a lot of flexibility and versatility, even if ecosystems change,” said team member Michael Petraglia of the Max Planck Institute for Human History. “I think, in part, this is the beginning of our own kind, and in part, this is our legacy.” Read the original scientific article about this research in Communications about nature. To read about an 800,000-year-old bone tip from Olduvai, visit the “Bone Collector”.