Monkey rock bashing resembles tools made by early human ancestors | Science
Hefting a potato-size rock, wild long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis) in Thailand smash oil palm nuts on stone anvils. As they pound away, sharp flakes sometimes fly off from their hammer stones—flakes that are “almost indistinguishable” from stone tools made by early human relatives more than 3 million years ago, according to a controversial new study. Indeed, the researchers argue, the monkeys’ flakes are so similar to our ancestors’ tools that many…