Final answer:
Australopithecines would likely have been capable of making simple tools for cutting, scraping, and chopping tasks, essential for their survival. These tools likely included close-range weapons like clubs and sharp-edged rocks. More complex tools are associated with later hominin species.
Step-by-step explanation:
If australopithecines used tools, they would have been capable of making simplistic instruments primarily suited for basic tasks such as cutting, scraping, and chopping. The use of these tools would have been fundamental for survival tasks like hunting for food, processing meat, and possibly for gathering and preparing plant foods. While australopithecines are not directly associated with the Oldowan tools, traditionally ascribed to Homo habilis and later hominins, there is speculation based on parallel behaviors in our primate relatives that these hominids would have had the capacity for tool use.
By making stone tools, australopithecines could have processed various foods more effectively and engaged in activities that speargun their cognitive development, potentially paving the way for future technological advances. Close-range tools such as clubs and simple sharp-edged rocks would have been within their capabilities, serving as extensions of their limbs for direct action upon materials and prey. In contrast, more complex tools like hafted spears and other composite tools appear in the archaeological record at later dates and are associated with species such as Homo heidelbergensis.