Discovered stones are the oldest tools used by primates outside of Africa.
Archaeologists have stated that the South American monkeys, Capuchins use stones for cracking nuts cashews for at least 700 years.
As reported on the website of the University of Oxford, the researchers suggest that the human behavior was driven by the observation of Capuchins. Stones were the earliest tools used by primates outside of Africa. In the course of the research, the scientists watched how the Capuchins use stones as “hammer and anvil” for cracking nuts. Monkeys chose the stones desired shape and weight, rather than taking the first available, and created places of processing cashew, leaving stones at them. Scientists have conducted excavations near the cashew trees, near where the Capuchin kept their tools. During the research they found 69 stone tools, mass spectrometric analysis which confirmed that they were used for cracking nuts cashews.
Radiocarbon Dating showed that their age is 600-700 years, there are monkeys used tools before the arrival of Europeans in South America.
The researchers also found that stone tools were used at least 100 generations of Capuchins, the mass and material of the guns remained unchanged. Until then, the only similar finding was made in côte d’ivoire, where they found tools age 4300-1300 years, which were used by chimpanzees.
The new data support the idea that monkeys use tools for hundreds or even thousands of years.
