Wild chimps rocked on: apes left unique record of stone tools. (This Week).Archaeologists, by definition, uncover the remnants of past human activity. With the first excavation of chimpanzee chimpanzee, an ape, genus Pan, of the equatorial forests of central and W Africa. The common chimpanzee, Pan troglodytes, lives N of the Congo River. Full-grown animals of this species are up to 5 ft (1. stone tools at an African site, however, the scope of their work has entered virgin terrain. Chimps transported suitable pieces of stone to the undated un·dat·ed adj. 1. Not marked with or showing a date: an undated letter; an undated portrait. 2. site and used them to crack open nuts placed on thick tree roots, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. Julio Mercader of George Washington University George Washington University, at Washington, D.C.; coeducational; chartered 1821 as Columbian College (one of the first nonsectarian colleges), opened 1822, became a university in 1873, renamed 1904. in Washington, D.C. "At least some wild chimpanzees have produced stone [artifacts artifacts see specimen artifacts. ] and left behind an archaeological record The archaeological record is a term used in archaeology to denote all archaeological evidence, including the physical remains of past human activities which archaeologists seek out and record in an attempt to analyze and reconstruct the past. of their nut-cracking behavior," says Mercader, who directed the excavation. He described the recent discoveries at the annual meeting of the Paleoanthropology Society, held last week in Denver. Researchers previously had reported that chimps living in western Africa's Tai forest avidly stockpile stones at places with broad tree roots or stumps that serve as anvils for cracking nuts. This activity may represent a learned behavior peculiar to the local animals, since chimps living in other parts of Africa don't use stone implements (SN: 6/19/99, p. 388). Mercader and his coworkers excavated a Tai forest site called Panda 100. Trees bearing so-called Panda nuts grew in this region until 1996, when they died out. The chimp artifacts haven't been dated yet. The researchers chose their dig site after noticing four large tree roots that displayed pounding marks made by stones. Excavation of trenches at the site yielded two more tree roots with similar markings. Fragments of nutshells were recovered around all six roots. Moreover, Mercader's group unearthed Unearthed is the name of a Triple J project to find and "dig up" (hence the name) hidden talent in regional Australia. Unearthed has had three incarnations - they first visited each region of Australia where Triple J had a transmitter - 41 regions in all. 479 stone artifacts, often in close proximity to the shell fragments. These artifacts included the remains of hammering stones, thin flakes that had been pounded off those stones, and pieces of shattered rock. The earliest known stone tools, made by human ancestors in eastern Africa around 2.6 million years ago, consisted of sharpened chopping implements and larger rocks used as anvils. Chimps' hammering stones recovered at Panda 100 are about the same size as those ancient choppers, Mercader says. However, implements used by human ancestors show more evidence of having been intentionally modified than do those attributed to chimps, he notes. The Tai forest discoveries suggest that archaeologists may be able to investigate links between nut-cracking tools employed by chimps and human ancestors, says wild-chimp researcher William McGrew of Miami University Miami University, main campus at Oxford, Ohio; coeducational; state supported; chartered 1809, opened 1824. The library has extensive collections in literature and American history, including the William Holmes McGuffey Library and Museum and the Edgar W. in Oxford, Ohio Oxford is a college town located in the southwestern portion of the U.S. state of Ohio in northwestern Butler County in Oxford Township, originally called the College Township. The population was 21,943 at the 2000 census (approximately 16,000 students are included in this figure). . Homo species cracked nuts with stone implements at least 780,000 years ago (SN: 2/23/02, p. 117). "There seems to be a signature of chimpanzee archaeology at Panda 100, which is pretty cool," remarks Nicholas Toth of Indiana University Indiana University, main campus at Bloomington; state supported; coeducational; chartered 1820 as a seminary, opened 1824. It became a college in 1828 and a university in 1838. The medical center (run jointly with Purdue Univ. in Bloomington, who studies ancient stone tools. Still, he adds, "the Tai forest material that I've seen looks fairly crude." In contrast, human ancestors' earliest known tools exhibit remarkably sophisticated workmanship, Toth says. In a study presented at the Paleoanthropology Society meeting, he and his coworkers discerned that 2.6-million-year-old stone tools and present-day stone chopping implements fashioned by experienced tool makers required similar skills. Toth also notes that two captive bonobos, or pygmy chimpanzees, have learned to make chopping tools out of rocks with considerable proficiency, though not up to human skills. Chimps' tool-making disadvantage largely derives from having large hands that can't manipulate objects as well or generate as much striking force as human hands can, Toth says. |
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