Professor Zug and his team have announced the invention of what they claim will be the beginning of a new paradigm in the transportation of humans, animals, fruit and rocks. Termed "the wheel", it has been the result of years of extensive research conducted at the Prehistoric Institute of Technology.
The announcement comes amid speculation that the Institute may receive budget cuts, as a result of its failure to produce a single piece of technology in at least thirty millennia. The wheel, Institute officials hope, will restore confidence in the ability of researchers to produce tangible results.
But conservative critics have already labelled the device "absurd" and "against the laws of nature".
"We've been walking around for hundreds of thousands of years," explains patriarch and part-time tribal warlord Thuhp, Remover of Eyebrows. "I see no point in changing the way we live our lives. If some crackpot inventor thinks he knows better, he can keep his pipe dreams to himself."
Others, such as tribal economist Dr Spzthf, have concerns over the infrastructure requirements of the new invention.
"We keep hearing these wild ideas for building 'roads' for these 'wheels'," says Dr Spzthf. "Well, has anyone thought about how these 'roads' are going to be funded? I think you're going to see a lot of people expressing a great deal of scepticism. Your average punter is going to think to himself: this sure as hell isn't going to come out of my taxpayer shells!"
Processor Zug, however, remains optimistic.
"We expect to be able to liaise with industry in order to perfect manufacturing practices and analyse possible designs for even more elaborate machines," he said. Despite his detractors, Zug says he is determined to press on with further development, possibly investigating ways to combine 'wheels' into composite devices, promising higher stability and flexibility. "It's an exciting field of research. We're not quite sure how we're going to do it, but we intend to find out."