This species is known to be one of the greater skill in the use of tools possesses; especially to feed, for example, by splitting coconuts and other fruits. But they are not the only ones, chimpanzees, for their part, use toothpicks to collect termites.
Capuchin monkeys in Brazil individually select rounded-edged pieces of quartzite and repeatedly bang them against other rocks to lick up the loosened dust. The researchers point out that the intention of this act is still unknown; maybe you provide them with mineral supplements or they just like the taste or texture. The result of this action is that some of the resulting materials have very similar shapes to the flakes found in the Olduvai Gorge and dated between 2.5 and 1.7 million years.
What this research shows us is that modern primates can produce flakes and cores archaeologically identifiable to others that, until now, were thought to be unique to humans. However, we now know that this is not necessarily linked only to the genus homo, but to a much broader range of hominids. The difference, as we pointed out, lies in the use of these artifacts; while humans deliberately produced and used them, it appears that monkeys use and produce them unconsciously, or at least accidentally.
For all these reasons, we are faced with new questions about the origin of similar pieces attributed so far to the first humans; that is, were the first human tools the result of chance or intention? It also raises new hypotheses about the minimum level of intelligence and morphology necessary to produce this type of tool. Specifically, the attention in this aspect is focused on artifacts found in Kenya from about 3.3 million years ago and which are the oldest in history. Could they have been misallocated? For some researchers, the key lies in the context of the findings, in whether these artifacts have been found together with hominin remains —or if there is any evidence linking them— or, on the contrary, they have been found totally out of context. In this second case is where doubts could arise.
Below we leave you a video in which you can see what we have just told you.
Original source :http://www.nature.com/news/monkey-tools-raise-questions-over-human-archaeological-record-1.20816
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