A Report on the Hominid "Nutcracker Man"

I recently read an article in the NY Times regarding the so-called "Nutcracker Man", aka East Africa Man, or Zinjanthropus boisei (Nutcracker Man's Secret: He Didn't Crack Nuts). The article talked about how they were planning on modifying a trait connoted to the hominid: that it did not in fact crack nuts. But what they didn't include: Zinjanthropus boisei was to be reclassified as an australopithecine, a genus in which Lucy is classified. And we know for a fact that Lucy (Australopithecus afarensis) was not a human ancestor, but a type of extinct pygmy chimp. Therefore, "Nutcracker Man" is really just a type of extinct chimp, and the tools found with it may have just been tools used on them, rather than tools that it itself used. See: Who was 'Nutcracker Man'?

More information on the mythology of "human ancestors" will be posted tomorrow.