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[gregory nahas <lettherebemonkeys AT yahoo.com>]

Report: chimps used simple tools 5 million years ago
May 23, 2002 Posted: 2:13 PM EDT (1813 GMT)

By Peter Dykstra
CNN Sci-Tech

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- An archaeological dig in West
Africa has revealed evidence that chimpanzees used
primitive tools as long as five million years ago,
according to an international team of scientists. 

The evidence is in the form of 479 fragments of
rudimentary stone hammers that the chimps used to
crack open nuts at the close of what is known as the
Miocene era, when Ice Age conditions cooled the
planet, according to their report in this week's
journal Science. 

The fragments -- found at a site in Tai National Park
in the Ivory Coast -- closely resemble similar tools
used by hominid (pre-human) species about the same
time, offering opportunities to learn more about the
history of human tools as well as providing a rare
look into how other primate species developed, the
researchers said. 

"This introduces the possibility of tracing the
development of at least one aspect of ape culture
through time," said Julio Mercader, an archaeologist
at the George Washington University In Washington,
D.C. 

Mercader and GWU colleagues conducted the
investigation with researchers from the Max Planck
Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig,
Germany. 

The ancient chimps, similar to their modern-day
counterparts, used sharp stone pieces to open nuts --
an important supplement to their diet of fruit,
leaves, and insects. The chimps apparently placed the
nuts on a tree root, using it as an "anvil" for the
stone hammers. 

Concentrations of stone-tool fragments were found
around ancient tree roots. 

The scientists said they will keep observating the
habits of modern chimps in Tai National Park --
including their use of stone tools -- for evidence of
change in chimp behavior since the five
million-year-old stone tools were used. The study
represents a rare departure for archaeologists, whose
work almost always focuses on humans and their
immediate ancestors. 

An unfortunate footnote to the research is that the
modern chimps in Tai National Park are among the last
in the nation of Ivory Coast. Victimized by
deforestation, hunting and a serious 1995 outbreak of
the ebola virus, only 750 chimps are thought to remain
in the nation. 
http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/science/5/23/chimps.tools/index.html



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