Up and coming

[PB666]

http://www.bbc.com/news/36767373

 

[Scotius]

Why would our (still ape-like) ancestors learn  to use tools by observing monkeys? Anthropoid apes already had big and developed brains. Our cousins chimps use tools too, and learn how to do it from elder members of their group. It stands to reason australopithecs or even earlier forms already posessing brains comparable to chimpanzees knew how to use two stones to crack a nut. Or how to dig out termites with a twig.

[Green Baron]

Tool use by capuchin-monkeys is nothing new. Otters open mussels with stones. Raven poke with a stick to chase worms out of the bark. Vultures fly high with a small animal to ... well, you get the point.

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2FBF02380877

What's uncertain is whether they understand what they are doing or just do it as part of a "program", an automatism.

Though in this case i ask myself: how did they identify a stone as having been used by monkeys to open nuts 700 years ago. Unfortunatly there is no link to the original paper ...

As to humans: as soon as tools have clearly been worked to perform a job (oldest very crude technique: oldovan) palaeoanthropoligists speak of tool use by humans. They are tool-making, not just using. How often do i have to repeat this ? :-)

Edit: @Scotius, yes, it can be assumed that pre-humans like the australopithecines used tools as well, the capability is there, but as far as i know they didn't make tools. Tool use (possibly without understanding) is well documented in quite e few species.

 

Edited July 12, 2016 by Green Baron

[lugge]

What's the article about?

(Hate random links with no further information)

[Green Baron]

3 minutes ago, lugge said:

What's the article about?

(Hate random links with no further information)

This is the relevant information:

"Researchers from Oxford University, working in Brazil, found ancient "nut-cracking tools" - 700-year-old stone hammers that capuchin monkeys used to open cashew nuts."

Edit: quotation marks

Edit 2: no pictures of the tools, no find circumstances, ....

Edited July 12, 2016 by Green Baron

[Scotius]

I think it was mentioned in the article. Archeologists identified 700 y.o. stones because they were discoloured by the juice seeping out of crushed nuts - just like the stones used currently by capuchin monkeys. And they dated them probably comparing their stratigraphic depth to layers of charcoal dater radiologically. But i agree - that article is a bit of a mess.