Two fossil specimens from the DIK-55 locality in the Hadar Formation at Dikika, Ethiopia, are
contemporaneous with the earliest documented stone tools, and they collectively bear
twelve marks interpreted to be characteristic of stone tool butchery damage. An alternative
interpretation of the marks has been that they were caused by trampling animals and do not
provide evidence of stone tool use or large ungulate exploitation by Australopithecus-grade
hominins. Thus, resolving which agents created marks on fossils in deposits from Dikika is …