As seen in the video, wild bearded capuchin monkeys also adopt a stone-on-stone percussion technique to produce stone flakes similar to early-human stone tools.
Broken stones with distinct sharp edges are thought to be a precursor to more sophisticated tool use by early humans. However, a recent Oxford study found that sharp-edged stones may not be unique to hominids. Researchers found that wild bearded capuchin monkeys (Sapajus libidinosus) in Brazil deliberately break stones, producing flakes similar to those thought to be early-human tools. The team observed wild bearded capuchin monkeys in the Serra da Capivara National Park in Brazil, and collected fragmented stones immediately after capuchins were observed using them. Their findings add an extra dimension to existing theories about human lifestyles in the Palaeolithic period, as well as current theories of tool use among all primates.
Authors:
Tomos Proffitt, Lydia V. Luncz, Tiago Falótico, Eduardo B. Ottoni, Ignacio de la Torre & Michael Haslam
Corresponding authors:
Tomos Proffitt and Michael Haslam, Primate Archaeology Research Group, School of Archaeology, University of Oxford, Dyson Perrins Building, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3QY, UK.
Original paper published in Nature on October 19, 2016.
