Stone shards made by nut-cracking macaques challenge some assumptions of paleoanthropology.
The production of stone tools is a defining moment in the history of mankind. More than three million years ago, our very distant ancestors began to strike stones on rocks (which are then similar to anvils) to detach sharp tools. The oldest discovered occurrence dates back 3.3 million years and was unearthed at the Lomekwi site in Kenya. A new study conducted by scientists from the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig, and published in the journal Science Advances , leads us to wonder about the origin of these productions. Scientists have observed long-tailed macaques in Thailand produce the same type of bursts, but without doing so on purpose.
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