Accidentally produced stone fragments made by macaques resemble some of the earliest hominin stone artifacts
From: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary
Anthropology
March 10, 2023 -- Researchers
from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology have discovered
artefacts produced by old world monkeys in Thailand that resemble stone tools,
which historically have been identified as intentionally made by early
hominins. Until now, sharp-edged stone tools were thought to represent the
onset of intentional stone tool production, one of the defining and unique
characteristics of hominin evolution. This new study challenges long held
beliefs about the origins of intentional tool production in our own lineage.
The research is based
on new analyses of stone tools used by long-tailed macaques in the Phang Nga
National Park in Thailand. These monkeys use stone tools to crack open
hard-shelled nuts. In that process, the monkeys often break their hammerstones
and anvils. The resulting assemblage of broken stones is substantial and
widespread across the landscape. Moreover, many of these artefacts bear all of
the same characteristics that are commonly used to identify intentionally made
stone tools in some of the earliest archaeological sites in East Africa.
"The ability to
intentionally make sharp stone flakes is seen as a crucial point in the
evolution of hominins, and understanding how and when this occurred is a huge
question that is typically investigated through the study of past artefacts and
fossils. Our study shows that stone tool production is not unique to humans and
our ancestors," says lead author Tomos Proffitt, a researcher at the Max
Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. "The fact that these
macaques use stone tools to process nuts is not surprising, as they also use
tools to gain access to various shellfish as well. What is interesting is that,
in doing so they accidently produce a substantial archaeological record of
their own that is partly indistinguishable from some hominin artefacts."
New insights into the
evolution of stone tool technology
By comparing the
accidentally produced stone fragments made by the macaques with those from some
of the earliest archaeological sites, the researchers were able to show that
many of the artefacts produced by monkeys fall within the range of those
commonly associated with early hominins. Co-lead author Jonathan Reeves
highlights: "The fact that these artifacts can be produced through nut
cracking has implications for the range of behaviours we associate with sharp
edged flakes in the archaeological record.."
The newly discovered
macaque stone tools offer new insights into how the first technology might have
started in our earliest ancestors and that its origin may have been linked to
similar nut cracking behaviour which could be substantially older than the
current earliest archaeological record. "Cracking nuts using stone hammers
and anvils, similar to what some primates do today, has been suggested by some
as a possible precursor to intentional stone tool production. This study, along
with previous ones published by our group, opens the door to being able to
identify such an archaeological signature in the future," says Lydia
Luncz, senior author of the study and head of the Technological Primates
Research Group at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
"This discovery shows how living primates can help researchers investigate
the origin and evolution of tool use in our own lineage."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/03/230310143653.htm
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