Ancient Chimps ‘Used Stone Tools’
"Chimpanzees in West Africa used stone tools to crack nuts 4,300 years ago," the BBC reports. "The discovery represents the oldest evidence of tool use by our closest evolutionary relative."Rock Solid JournalismBBC:
Chimpanzees in West Africa used stone tools to crack nuts 4,300 years ago.
The discovery represents the oldest evidence of tool use by our closest evolutionary relative.
The skill could have been inherited from a common ancestor of chimps and humans, the authors say, or learnt from humans by imitation.
Alternatively, humans and chimps may have developed tool use independently, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal reports.
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