The stone tools used by a group of wild Chimpanzees in the Ta Forest were identified and 3D scanned during the fieldwork. The study was published in the Royal Society open science.
Some Chimpanzees use stone tools to crack open nuts, while others use wooden tools. By comparing the 3D models of different stone tools used by Chimpanzees in the Ta Forest to those from another group, the researchers found that there were notable differences in their material culture.
A study shows that a group of Chimpanzees in Guinea use a variety of stone hammers and stone anvils. Stone tools are widely used across the landscape and represent a long-term record of Chimpanzees' behavior.
Chimpanzees use stone tools for nut cracking.
Although several groups of Chimpanzees practice nut cracking, the tools they use can differ greatly from one another, leading to group specific material signatures. The stone choices, stone availability, and nut species eaten drive the differences.
Some groups of Chimpanzees use stone tools to create their own archaeological record, which is at least 4,300 years old. According to Tomos Proffitt from the Max Planck Institute of Evolutionary Anthropology, the ability to identify regional differences in stone tool material culture in primates opens up a range of possibilities for future primate archaeological studies.
More than three million years ago, it was believed that a simple technology, like nut cracking, was a progenitor of more complex stone technology. Proffitt says that by understanding what stone tool technology looks like, and how it varies between groups, we can better identify the signature in the earliest hominin archaeological record.
More information: Identifying functional and regional differences in chimpanzee stone tool technology, Royal Society Open Science (2022). DOI: 10.1098/rsos.220826. royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.220826 Journal information: Royal Society Open Science
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