Who made the Oldowan? Reviewing African hominin fossils and archaeological sites 3.5 mya

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0278416525000492
Who made the Oldowan? Reviewing African
hominin fossils and archaeological sites
from 3.5 million years ago
Abstract
The question of which African hominin taxon/taxa
was responsible for producing Oldowan stone tools
has persisted for nearly a century. Homo habilis,
Paranthropus boisei, Homo erectus,
Australopithecus garhi, and Australopithecus
africanus, among others, have been proposed as
candidates, but we have never had a definitive
answer to ‘who made the Oldowan’. We review the
hominin taxa that overlap temporally with the
Oldowan, and use optimal linear estimation
modeling to estimate first and last appearance
dates for each taxon and the Oldowan. These
modeled temporal trends suggest the Oldowan
emerged c. 3.25 Ma lasting until either 1.6 or
1.2 Ma, a time span that would make the Oldowan
the longest-lived human cultural tradition. The
modeled emergence of the Homo genus and
extinction of early Homo coincide well with the
first and last appearance dates of the Oldowan,
but there is also considerable temporal overlap
between the Oldowan and other hominin taxa,
particularly Paranthropus boisei. Early members
of the Homo genus remain the principal candidate
for making and using the Oldowan throughout its
shorter modeled temporal range (c. 3.25–1.6 Ma),
and, if the Oldowan was produced until 1.2 Ma,
P. boisei is the prime candidate for producing
these later artifacts.
"Based on their direct or inferred association
with Oldowan stone tools at a few sites (Toth
and Schick 2018) the main contenders for
producing Oldowan tools are early Homo
(including H. habilis and Homo rudolfensis), Homo
erectus/ergaster, P. boisei, and Paranthropus
robustus. However, these sites are not ‘smoking
guns’ (sensu Cleland, 2013), and the principle of
equifinality and the ‘poltergeist of the
unpreserved’ (Conrad et al. 2023) reduces their
explanatory power (Hammond and Mongle 2023)."
"Considering these results, and the current
spatial distribution of Oldowan and hominin
fossil sites, it is unlikely that one taxon
created all Oldowan artifacts. Given that early
members of the Homo genus are most closely
associated with the Oldowan in time and space
(modeled and known sites), it is likely they
created the Oldowan through most of its
temporal range. Artifacts were also likely made
by additional taxa, of which P. boisei is the
strongest contender."
"Our models indicate overlap between up to 15
hominin taxa and the modeled span of the
Oldowan, extending from c. 3.25 Ma to either
1.6 or 1.2 Ma, depending on the whether young,
outlying Oldowan sites from Koobi Fora are
included. If the longer temporal range is
accepted, the Oldowan becomes the longest-lived
known human cultural tradition, lasting for over
two million years."