Chimpanzee Nut-Bashing Technology Proves Thousands of Years Old Chimpanzees have been using hammer stones and anvils for at least 4,300 years, according to new archaeological evidence from Africa
The chimpanzees of Ivory Coast's Taï National Park in western Africa are quite handy with a hammer stone. They use the large stones to expertly smash panda nuts and other food sources, chipping and flaking them in the process—a feat humans would be hard-pressed to mimic. After all, the stones are much larger than can easily be grasped by a human hand and require much more strength than the human arm can generate. Now archaeologist Julio Mercader of the University of Calgary and his team have found worn hammers and stone fragments over 4,000 years old that apparently were used by chimps.
The researchers uncovered 206 stone pieces from sites in Ivory Coast that resembled the tools and detritus produced by modern chimp nut-bashing. Dating the surrounding muck via its carbon 14 content revealed that the stones were laid down 4,300 years ago. To make sure that the stones were not formed by natural processes—so-called geofacts—the rocks were mixed in with such naturally formed artifacts and submitted to a blind test by outside experts, which confirmed the damage was not made by nature.
That's pretty cool.
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