Dr Ceri Shipton on site at Saffaqah in central Saudi Arabia. Image: ANU.
New archaeological research from The Australian National University (ANU) has found that Homo erectus , an extinct species of primitive humans, went extinct in part because they were 'lazy'. An archaeological excavation of ancient human populations in the Arabian Peninsula during the Early Stone Age, found that Homo erectus used 'least-effort strategies' for tool making and collecting resources. This 'laziness' paired with an inability to adapt to a changing climate likely played a role in the species going extinct, according to lead researcher Dr Ceri Shipton of the ANU School of Culture, History and Language. "They really don't seem to have been pushing themselves," Dr Shipton said. "I don't get the sense they were explorers looking over the horizon. They didn't have that same sense of wonder that we have." Dr Shipton said this was evident in the way the species made their stone tools and collected resources. "To make their stone tools they would use whatever rocks they could find lying around their camp, which were mostly of comparatively low quality to what later stone tool makers used," he said.
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