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Monkeys' Tools Excavated

Accepted submission by butthurt at 2016-07-12 22:47:53
Science

The National Geographic reports [nationalgeographic.com] on a letter published in Current Biology [cell.com] (full article is paywalled). Archaeologists excavated what they call

a distinctive stone tool assemblage created by a non-human animal in the New World, the Brazilian bearded capuchin monkey (Sapajus libidinosus).

They say that the monkeys used the "stone hammers and anvils" to break open the nuts of cashews. [wikipedia.org] The tools are believed to date from about 600 or 700 years ago. The authors say they are "the oldest non-human tools known outside of Africa."


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