New study on monkeys using stone tools raises questions about evolution

The Hill ^ | 3/10/2023 | SAUL ELBEIN

[logi_cal869]

Monkeys in modern-day Thai forests create stone artifacts uncannily similar to those crafted by early humans — challenging the established narrative of human cultural evolution.

A new study published on Friday in Science Advances suggests the possibility that a critical hallmark of human tool use happened by accident — potentially blurring the line between tool use by early humans and our primate relatives.

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In an abandoned oil palm plantation on a national park site, the monkeys would create nut-cracking ‘stations’ beneath the feral trees.

There they break open the palm fruit’s oil-rich pit between hand-wielded hammer rocks and a thick, flat stone that functions as an anvil.

Camera traps showed that when the nut-cracking monkeys miss a strike, the two stones bang together.

That collision sometimes strikes a flake off of one of the rocks — something very similar to the toolmaking process archeologists call “knapping.”

Ancient humans used knapping to break apart rocks to create an incredibly flexible set of tools — the earliest forms of which cannot be distinguished from the ones macaques made by accident.

That points to a possibility that could throw a wrench into the established narrative, Luncz said: that “all the conoidal flakes we find in the archaeological record — deemed to be intentionally made — could be unintentional byproducts.”

[Varda]

Got it, I’m slow in the morning!

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Evolution takes time.

But the other primates have been around longer then we have and still show absolutely no tendency to do anything but eat, copulate with anything they can overpower, throw poop and tear each other apart.

In other words, they act just like democrats.

Shouldn't they have shown some signs of progress by now?

[whitney69]

“But the other primates have been around longer then we have and still show absolutely no tendency to do anything but eat, copulate with anything they can overpower, throw poop and tear each other apart.”

Sounds like Chicago doesn’t it.

I think you might find that man was originally the weakest of almost all the animals growing up through time. We didn’t have a lot of fur, we didn’t have strength to overcome many of the animals we lived around, and our counter part human homo erectus poranthropus, was closer to what we see as bigfoot now. But even with his size and and strength, he fell off the face of the earth in a couple of thousand years. He was a day hunter and sapien, who was closer to what we consider ourselves now, came out at night to feed and was smart enough not to encounter most other animals.

Depending upon the animal, and sometimes brain size, was a direct relationship to growth. However animal that used tools are out there in many different shapes and sizes:

Chimps, orangutans, macaques, and gorillas are a few of the animals closer to a man appearance. However, ants, dolphins, elephants, some rodents, octopus, crows, and crocodiles are a few that use tools but are not close to man. And plants like the venus fly trap and the arachnid trap door spider have evolved past their peers.

But these animals have learned how to live in a bare minimum standard. Man is greedy and wishes more in life than survival. Plus man is part of the reason the animals have such a tough time surviving.

I remember Mark Twain having said, “Man is the only animal that blushes.....or needs to.”

wy69

[Antoninus]

Wake me when the monkeys start building looms.