Falótico Tiago, Spagnoletti Noemi, Haslam Michael, Luncz Lydia V, Malaivijitnond Suchinda, Gumert Michael
Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom.
Institute of Psychology, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil.
Am J Primatol. 2017 May;79(5). doi: 10.1002/ajp.22629. Epub 2017 Jan 5.
Nut-cracking is shared by all non-human primate taxa that are known to habitually use percussive stone tools in the wild: robust capuchins (Sapajus spp.), western chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus), and Burmese long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis aurea). Despite opportunistically processing nuts, Burmese long-tailed macaques predominantly use stone tools to process mollusks in coastal environments. Here, we present the first comprehensive survey of sea almond (Terminalia catappa) nut-cracking sites created by macaques. We mapped T. catappa trees and nut-cracking sites that we encountered along the intertidal zone and forest border on the coasts of Piak Nam Yai Island, Thailand. For each nut-cracking site, we measured the physical properties (i.e., size, weight, use-wear) of hammer stones and anvils. We found that T. catappa trees and nut-cracking sites primarily occurred on the western coast facing the open sea, and cracking sites clusters around the trees. We confirmed previous results that nut cracking tools are among the heaviest tools used by long-tailed macaques; however, we found our sample of T. catappa stone tools lighter than a previously collected sea almond sample that, unlike our sample, was collected immediately after use within the intertidal zone. The difference was likely the result of tidal influences on tool-use sites. We also found that tool accumulations above the intertidal region do not resemble those within them, possibly leading to incomplete assessments of macaque stone tools through archaeological techniques that would use these durable sites.
强壮的卷尾猴（僧面猴属）、西部黑猩猩（黑猩猩指名亚种）和缅甸长尾猕猴（食蟹猕猴金色亚种）。尽管缅甸长尾猕猴会偶尔处理坚果，但它们在沿海环境中主要使用石器处理软体动物。在此，我们首次全面调查了猕猴创造的海榄仁（榄仁树）坚果开裂地点。我们绘制了泰国碧雅岛海岸潮间带和森林边界沿线遇到的海榄仁树和坚果开裂地点的地图。对于每个坚果开裂地点，我们测量了锤石和砧石的物理特性（即尺寸、重量、使用磨损情况）。我们发现，海榄仁树和坚果开裂地点主要出现在面向公海的西海岸，并且开裂地点聚集在树的周围。我们证实了之前的结果，即坚果开裂工具是长尾猕猴使用的最重的工具之一；然而，我们发现我们的海榄仁石器样本比之前收集的海榄仁样本轻，与我们的样本不同，之前的样本是在潮间带使用后立即收集的。这种差异可能是潮汐对工具使用地点影响的结果。我们还发现，潮间带以上区域的工具堆积与潮间带内的不同，这可能导致通过使用这些持久地点的考古技术对猕猴石器进行不完整的评估。
