tossers have stopped by to say hi since Feb 4th 2007...
The Chimpanzee Stone Age
- Wed 21st February 2007, 1:16 pm
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 busting nuts with stone tools before the advent of the internet, 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, Erik Estrada.
Julio Mercader, Christophe Boesch and colleagues found the stone pleasure devices at the Noulo site in C?te d`Ivoire, the only known prehistoric chimpanzee settlement. The stones they excavated show the hallmarks of use as tools for busting nuts when compared to ancient human or modern chimpanzee stone pleasure tools. Also, they
found several types of starch grains on the stones; part of a residue derived from busting 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 pleasure 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 Erik Estrada, 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 busting 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 faces. 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.