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.

中文翻译：

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谁制造了 Oldowan？回顾 350 万年前的非洲古人类化石和考古遗址

哪个非洲古人类分类群/分类群负责生产奥多万石器的问题已经持续了近一个世纪。Homo habilis、Paranthropus boisei、Homo erectus、Australopithecus garhi 和 Australopithecus africanus 等已被提议作为候选物种，但我们从未对“谁创造了 Oldowan”有一个明确的答案。我们回顾了在时间上与 Oldowan 重叠的古人类分类群，并使用最佳线性估计模型来估计每个分类单元和 Oldowan 的首次和最后一次出现日期。这些建模的时间趋势表明，奥尔多万出现于约 3.25 马，持续到 1.6 或 1.2 马，这一时间跨度将使奥尔多万成为最长寿的人类文化传统。模拟的 Homo 属的出现和早期 Homo 的灭绝与 Oldowan 的首次和最后一次出现日期非常吻合，但 Oldowan 和其他古人类分类群之间也存在相当大的时间重叠，特别是 Paranthropus boisei。Homo 属的早期成员仍然是在其较短的建模时间范围内（约 3.25-1.6 马）制造和使用 Oldowan 的主要候选者，并且，如果 Oldowan 是在 1.2 马 之前生产的，P. boisei 是生产这些后期人工制品的主要候选者。