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["Josh Greenman" <josh.greenman AT gmail.com>]

http://www.scienceblog.com/cms/the-chimpanzee-stone-age-12590.html

The Chimpanzee Stone Age
Tue, 2007-02-13 09:33 — BJS

Researchers have found evidence that chimpanzees from West Africa were
cracking nuts with stone tools before the advent of agriculture,
thousands of years ago. The result suggests chimpanzees developed this
behaviour on their own, or even that stone tool use was a trait
inherited from our common ancestor. Julio Mercader, Christophe Boesch
and colleagues found the stones at the Noulo site in Côte d'Ivoire,
the only known prehistoric chimpanzee settlement. The stones they
excavated show the hallmarks of use as tools for smashing nuts when
compared to ancient human or modern chimpanzee stone tools. Also, they
found several types of starch grains on the stones; part of the
residue derived from cracking local nuts. The tools are 4300 years
old, which, in human terms, corresponds to the Later Stone Age (PNAS,
February 2007).

Before this study, chimpanzees were first observed using stone tools
in the 19th century. Now, thanks to this new archaeological find, tool
use by chimpanzees has been pushed back thousands of years. The
authors suggest this type of tool use could have originated with our
common ancestor, instead of arising independently among hominins and
chimpanzees or through imitation of humans by chimpanzees.

This study confirmed that chimpanzees and human ancestors share for
thousands of years several cultural attributes once thought exclusive
of humanity, including transport of raw materials across the
landscape; selection and curation of raw materials for a specific type
of work and projected usage; habitual reoccupation of sites where
garbage and debris accumulate; and the use of locally available
resources. Nut cracking behaviour in chimpanzees is transmitted
socially, and the new discoveries presented in this study shows that
such behaviour has been transmitted over the course of many chimpanzee
generations. Chimpanzee prehistory has deep roots!

The study of our living closest relative, the chimpanzee, constantly
highlights new aspects of human evolution, and a better protection of
this endangered species will guarantee that we can continue uncovering
new facets of our past. Relevant finds come from all parts of the
African continent, including the rainforest, and not just the
classical east African homeland.