Luncz Lydia V, Slania Nora E, Almeida-Warren Katarina, Carvalho Susana, Falótico Tiago, Malaivijitnond Suchinda, Arroyo Adrián, de la Torre Ignacio, Proffitt Tomos
Technological Primates Research Group, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103, Leipzig, Germany.
Development and Evolution of Cognition Research Group, Max Planck Institute of Animal Behaviour, Konstanz, Germany.
Sci Rep. 2024 Jul 17;14(1):16556. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-67048-z.
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.
考古记录通过石器和化石遗迹揭示古代行为，从而让我们深入了解人类的进化历程。有研究表明，敲击觅食对于我们这一谱系中工具使用的出现尤为重要，然而与片状技术相比，早期人类的敲击行为在很大程度上仍未得到充分研究。现存灵长类动物使用石器的情况使得我们能够同时研究它们的工具及其相关行为。这对于理解工具表面改造的发展很重要，对于解读考古记录中的损伤模式也至关重要。在此，我们比较了使用石器的灵长类动物的行为及其产生的物质记录。我们通过使用可比原材料进行标准化野外实验，研究了黑猩猩、卷尾猴和食蟹猴在坚果开裂技术与石器改造之间的关系。我们发现，不同的技术可能是为应对不同的坚果硬度而出现的，这导致了不同物种觅食成功率的差异。我们的实验进一步证明了技术与工具上可见敲击损伤强度之间的相关性。如食蟹猴所展示的，使用更精确、高效的工具，其使用磨损痕迹更少。这表明某些敲击技术在考古记录中可能不太容易被识别出来。
