Tool skill impacts the archaeological evidence across technological primates

The archaeological record offers insights into our evolutionary past by revealing ancient behaviour through stone and fossil remains. Percussive foraging is suggested to be particularly relevant for the emergence of tool-use in our lineage, yet early hominin percussive behaviours remain largely unde...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Scientific reports Vol. 14; no. 1; pp. 16556 - 11
Main Authors:	Luncz, Lydia V., Slania, Nora E., Almeida-Warren, Katarina, Carvalho, Susana, Falótico, Tiago, Malaivijitnond, Suchinda, Arroyo, Adrián, de la Torre, Ignacio, Proffitt, Tomos
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	London Nature Publishing Group UK 17-07-2024 Nature Publishing Group Nature Portfolio
Subjects:	631/158 631/181 Animals Archaeology Behavior Cebus Field experiments Field tests Foraging behavior Fossils Humanities and Social Sciences Macaca multidisciplinary Nut cracking Nuts Pan troglodytes - physiology Primate cognition Primates Raw materials Science Science (multidisciplinary) Tool use Tool Use Behavior Use wear Primates Nut cracking Tool-use Primate cognition Use wear Field experiments
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Summary:	The archaeological record offers insights into our evolutionary past by revealing ancient behaviour through stone and fossil remains. Percussive foraging is suggested to be particularly relevant for the emergence of tool-use in our lineage, yet early hominin percussive behaviours remain largely understudied compared to flaked technology. Stone tool-use of extant primates allows the simultaneous investigation of their artefacts and the associated behaviours. This is important for understanding the development of tool surface modification, and crucial for interpreting damage patterns in the archaeological record. Here, we compare the behaviour and the resulting material record across stone tool-using primates. We investigate the relationship of nut-cracking technique and stone tool modification across chimpanzees, capuchins, and long-tailed macaques by conducting standardized field experiments with comparable raw materials. We show that different techniques likely emerged in response to diverse nut hardness, leading to variation in foraging success across species. Our experiments further demonstrate a correlation between techniques and the intensity of visible percussive damage on the tools. Tools used with more precision and efficiency as demonstrated by macaques, show fewer use wear traces. This suggests that some percussive techniques may be less readily identified in the archaeological record.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23
ISSN:	2045-2322 2045-2322
DOI:	10.1038/s41598-024-67048-z