Skeletal evidence for precision gripping inCebus apella

Westergaard, Gregory Charles; Kuhn, H. E.

doi:10.1007/bf02438646

Cited by 3 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…Macaques presumably have more hand control than capuchins because they have greater volar opposability, have better individual digit control, and have a saddle joints in their thumb [Christel & Fragaszy, 2000;Fragaszy, 1998] and therefore we might expect macaques to be able to exert more control and force in a precision grip than capuchins. Despite this difference, capuchins are highly manipulative, have an exceptional degree of innervation between the spine and fingers [Fragaszy, 1998], and have greater thumb robusticity than macaques [Westergaard & Kuhn, 2001]. These factors can account for the convergence we see in the hand dexterity of macaques and capuchins, despite their differences in hand anatomy.…”

Section: A Three-species Model For Nhp Stone Tool Usementioning

confidence: 99%

The physical characteristics and usage patterns of stone axe and pounding hammers used by long‐tailed macaques in the Andaman Sea region of Thailand

Gumert

Kluck

Malaivijitnond

2009

American J Primatol

241

194

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Stone hammering in natural conditions has been extensively investigated in chimpanzees and bearded capuchins. In contrast, knowledge of stone tool use in wild Old World monkeys has been limited to anecdotal reports, despite having known for over 120 years that Macaca fascicularis aurea use stone tools to process shelled foods from intertidal zones on islands in the Andaman Sea. Our report is the first scientific investigation to look at the stone tools used by these macaques. We observed they were skilled tool users and used stone tools daily. They selected tools with differing qualities for differing food items, and appeared to use at least two types of stone tools. Pounding hammers were used to crush shellfish and nuts on anvils and axe hammers were used to pick or chip at oysters attached to boulders or trees. We found significant physical differences between these two tools. Tools at oyster beds were smaller and exhibited scarring patterns focused more often on the points, whereas tools found at anvils were larger and showed more scarring on the broader surfaces. We also observed grip differences between the two tool types. Lastly, macaques struck targets with axe hammers more rapidly and over a wider range of motion than with pounding hammers. Both our behavioral and lithic data support that axe hammers might be used with greater control and precision than pounding hammers. Hand-sized axe hammers were used for controlled chipping to crack attached oysters, and larger pounding hammers were used to crush nuts and unattached shellfish on anvils. In addition to stones, they also used hand-sized auger shells (Turritella attenuata) as picks to axe attached oysters. Pound hammering appears similar to the stone tools used by chimpanzees and capuchins, but axe hammering has not yet been documented in other nonhuman primates in natural conditions.

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Section: A Three-species Model For Nhp Stone Tool Usementioning

confidence: 99%

The physical characteristics and usage patterns of stone axe and pounding hammers used by long‐tailed macaques in the Andaman Sea region of Thailand

Gumert

Kluck

Malaivijitnond

2009

American J Primatol

241

194

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…We argued previously that morphological convergences between Cebus and the great apes evolved as adaptations for extractive foraging, and that these morphological characters (such as increased neocortical development, large brains relative to body size, highly mobile thumbs, and thumb robusticity [e.g. Westergaard, 1998;Westergaard & Kuhn, 2001]) facilitated behaviors such as tool use and accurate throwing.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the present research, we examined aimed-throwing behavior in tufted capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella). Capuchins are highly manipulative, sexually dimorphic, omnivorous New World monkeys that display a suite of morphological and behavioral convergences with the hominoids, including an allometric brain to body weight relationship similar to that of Pan, increased neocortical development, and a highly mobile thumb [Costello & Fragaszy, 1988;Fragaszy & Mitchell, 1990;Westergaard & Kuhn, 2001]. Given the known cognitive and manipulative capabilities of capuchins, as well as their phylogenetic distance from great apes and humans, we previously suggested that capuchins, as a model of early hominid behavior, represent a unique opportunity to gain insight into the social and ecological (rather than genetic) selective pressures that result in similar behavioral and morphological convergences among Cebus, Pan, and Homo [Westergaard, 1998].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Throwing behavior and mass distribution of stone selection in tufted capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella)

Cleveland¹,

Ar²,

El³

et al. 2003

American J Primatol

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Cannell [Journal of Archaeological Science 29:335-339, 2002] argued that sex-based differences among humans in terms of the mass of chosen throwing stones could be used to infer body mass and patterns of sexual dimorphism in early hominids from Olduvai and Koobi Fora by examining the mass distributions of unaltered stone tools at those sites. We examined this hypothesis in tufted capuchin monkeys using a comparative approach, by investigating the relationships among body mass, sex, stone weight preference, and accuracy in a throwing task. The subject sample consisted of nine monkeys trained to perform an aimed-throwing task in which a food reward could be obtained by throwing a stone into a bucket. We found that 1) the subjects showed a strong mean stone mass preference; 2) the females chose heavier stones than the males, in terms of absolute mean selected stone mass and selected stone mass relative to body mass; 3) subjects threw more accurately when they used stones of preferred mass vs. stones of nonpreferred mass; and 4) overall, the males were more accurate in the throwing task than the females. We conclude that capuchins are highly selective when choosing throwing stones, and that this confers an advantage for throwing accuracy. Our results indicate that the sexually dimorphic pattern in stone mass preference observed among humans does not generalize to Cebus apella. We suggest that researchers examining this pattern in humans in an attempt to explain early hominid patterns of dimorphism and behavior should take into account not only stone weight preference, but also its adaptive advantage.

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Transport of tools to food sites in tufted capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella)

et al. 2004

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Tool use and transport represent cognitively important aspects of early hominid evolution, and nonhuman primates are often used as models to examine the cognitive, ecological, morphological and social correlates of these behaviors in order to gain insights into the behavior of our early human ancestors. In 2001, Jalles-Filho et al. found that free-ranging capuchin monkeys failed to transport tools (stones) to food sites (nuts), but transported the foods to the tool sites. This result cast doubt on the usefulness of Cebus to model early human tool-using behavior. In this study, we examined the performance of six captive tufted capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella) in a tool transport task. Subjects were provided with the opportunity to transport two different tools to fixed food reward sites when the food reward was visible from the tool site and when the food reward was not visible from the tool site. We found that the subjects quickly and readily transported probing tools to an apparatus baited with syrup, but rarely transported stones to a nut-cracking apparatus. We suggest that the performance of the capuchins here reflects an efficient foraging strategy, in terms of energy return, among wild Cebus monkeys.

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Skeletal evidence for precision gripping inCebus apella

Cited by 3 publications

References 19 publications

The physical characteristics and usage patterns of stone axe and pounding hammers used by long‐tailed macaques in the Andaman Sea region of Thailand

The physical characteristics and usage patterns of stone axe and pounding hammers used by long‐tailed macaques in the Andaman Sea region of Thailand

Throwing behavior and mass distribution of stone selection in tufted capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella)

Transport of tools to food sites in tufted capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella)

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