Excavation of a Chimpanzee Stone Tool Site in the African Rainforest

Mercader, Julio; Panger, Melissa A.; Boesch, Christophe

doi:10.1126/science.1070268

Cited by 232 publications

(160 citation statements)

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“…Second, Mercader et al (2002) have used traditional archaeological techniques to excavate a site in Africa used by chimpanzees for at least the past 20 years to crack nuts using stone hammers and wooden anvils. Considerable evidence of past nut-cracking behaviour was uncovered, specifically nutshell and fractured stone, the latter of which the authors claimed was indistinguishable from a subset of the earliest and simplest stone tool assemblages left by hominid ancestors.…”

Section: Nonhuman Culturementioning

confidence: 99%

Towards a unified science of cultural evolution

2006

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We suggest that human culture exhibits key Darwinian evolutionary properties, and argue that the structure of a science of cultural evolution should share fundamental features with the structure of the science of biological evolution. This latter claim is tested by outlining the methods and approaches employed by the principal subdisciplines of evolutionary biology and assessing whether there is an existing or potential corresponding approach to the study of cultural evolution. Existing approaches within anthropology and archaeology demonstrate a good match with the macroevolutionary methods of systematics, paleobiology, and biogeography, whereas mathematical models derived from population genetics have been successfully developed to study cultural microevolution. Much potential exists for experimental simulations and field studies of cultural microevolution, where there are opportunities to borrow further methods and hypotheses from biology. Potential also exists for the cultural equivalent of molecular genetics in "social cognitive neuroscience," although many fundamental issues have yet to be resolved. It is argued that studying culture within a unifying evolutionary framework has the potential to integrate a number of separate disciplines within the social sciences.

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Section: Nonhuman Culturementioning

confidence: 99%

Towards a unified science of cultural evolution

2006

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“…Although they have been observed to utilize stone artifacts (Boesch and Boesch, 1983) that can accumulate over time (Mercader et al, 2002), chimpanzees do not use stone tools to butcher animal prey. While a single chimpanzee has been observed to use a stick to pry a single squirrel out of its tree hole (Huffman and Kalunde, 1993), and another was observed to use a stick tool to extract marrow after the removal of a long bone epiphysis (Boesch and Boesch, 1989), chimpanzees do not typically use any form of technology during their hunting or feeding bouts.…”

Section: Chimpanzees As a Model For Pre-technological Homininsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Taphonomic analysis of skeletal remains from chimpanzee hunts at Ngogo, Kibale National Park, Uganda

Pobiner

DeSilva

Sanders

et al. 2007

Journal of Human Evolution

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“…These characteristics underlie the identification of intentional stone flaking at all early archaeological sites 3,5,[7][8][9][10][11][12] , as they do not co-occur under natural geological conditions. To date, comparisons between hominin intentional stone flaking and wild primate stone tool use have focused on West African chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) [13][14][15][16] . Nevertheless, stone breakage during chimpanzee tool use is accidental 15 , a result of missed hits or indirect force application during activities such as nut-cracking.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To date, comparisons between hominin intentional stone flaking and wild primate stone tool use have focused on West African chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) [13][14][15][16] . Nevertheless, stone breakage during chimpanzee tool use is accidental 15 , a result of missed hits or indirect force application during activities such as nut-cracking.…”

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confidence: 99%

Wild monkeys flake stone tools

Proffitt

Luncz

Falótico

et al. 2016

Nature

202

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* These authors contributed equally to this work. Paleoanthropologists use the distinctive characteristics of flaked stone tools both to distinguish them from naturally broken stones, and to interpret the behaviour of the hominins that produced them 4 . Suggested hallmarks of the earliest stone tool technology include (i) controlled, conchoidal flaking 5 , (ii) production of sharp cutting edges 6 , (iii) repeated removal of multiple flakes from a single core, (iv) clear targeting of core edges, and (v) adoption of specific flaking patterns 7 . These characteristics underlie the identification of intentional stone flaking at all early archaeological sites 3,5,[7][8][9][10][11][12] , as they do not co-occur under natural geological conditions. To date, comparisons between hominin intentional stone flaking and wild primate stone tool use have focused on West African chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) [13][14][15][16] . Nevertheless, stone breakage during chimpanzee tool use is accidental 15 , a result of missed hits or indirect force application during activities such as nut-cracking. The resulting stone fragments lack most of the diagnostic criteria listed above for hominin flakes 10,17 . Even when the manufacture of sharp edges was taught to captive bonobos (Pan paniscus), the resulting flaked assemblage did not replicate the early hominin archaeological record 18 .The capuchins of Serra da Capivara National Park (SCNP) in Brazil use stone tools in more varied activities than any other known non-human primate, including for pounding foods, digging, and in sexual displays [19][20][21] . Bearded capuchins and some Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata) are known to pound stones directly against each other 22 , however, the SCNP capuchins are the only wild primates that do so for the purpose of damaging those stones 19 . This activity, which we term stone on stone (SoS) percussion, typically involves an individual selecting rounded quartzite cobbles from a conglomerate bed (active hammers), and with one or two hands striking the hammerstone forcefully and repeatedly on quartzite In addition to deliberately crushing the surface of both the active and passive hammers, the capuchins regularly unintentionally break the stones during use (Extended Data 1). In addition, we observed a capuchin purposefully place a newly fractured stone flake on top of another stone, and then strike it with a hammer in a manner resembling chimpanzee nutcracking or human bipolar reduction (Extended Data 1). Nevertheless, while the monkeys were seen to re-use broken hammerstone parts as fresh hammers, they were not observed using the sharp edges of fractured tools to cut or scrape other objects.We collected fragmented stones immediately after capuchins were observed using them at the Oitenta site in SCNP (8º 52.394 S, 42º 37.971 W) (Figure 1), as well as from surface surveys and archaeological excavation in the same area (Extended Data 2). The assemblage consists of 111 capuchin modified stone artefacts, including complete and broken hammerst...

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Excavation of a Chimpanzee Stone Tool Site in the African Rainforest

Cited by 232 publications

References 17 publications

Towards a unified science of cultural evolution

Towards a unified science of cultural evolution

Taphonomic analysis of skeletal remains from chimpanzee hunts at Ngogo, Kibale National Park, Uganda

Wild monkeys flake stone tools

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