Monkeys make stone tools, according to reports in Nature News and ScienceDaily 19 October 2016 and Nature (2016) doi:10.1038/nature20112, published online 19 October 2016.
Sharp edged stone flakes with a distinctive conchoidal fracture are traditionally considered evidence of human or hominid stone tool production.
Researchers from the University of Oxford, University College London and University of São Paulo in Brazil have observed wild bearded capuchin monkeys in Brazil picking up quartz stone cobbles and repeatedly hitting other stones on the same rocky outcrop resulting in stone flakes described by the research team as “conchoidally fractured, sharp-edged flakes and cores that have the characteristics and morphology of intentionally produced hominin tools”.
The monkeys made no attempt to use the flakes for cutting. The only thing they were observed to do with the broken stones was lick the cut surfaces. After that they discarded them.
The researchers went on to write: “The production of archaeologically visible cores and flakes is therefore no longer unique to the human lineage, providing a comparative perspective on the emergence of lithic technology. This discovery adds an additional dimension to interpretations of the human Palaeolithic record, the possible function of early stone tools, and the cognitive requirements for the emergence of stone flaking”.
The Nature News article is entitled “Monkey ‘tools’ raise questions over human archaeological record”.
Editorial Comment: While this finding may cause evolutionary archaeologists to reconsider some of their findings, it is no problem for us at Creation Research. We never try to reconstruct the evolutionary history of the human race based on stone fragments, which are fitted into a theory that human culture has gone from simple to complex.
To really know the history of man you need a written record from a reliable witness who was there. We have that in God’s Word, which tells us that two original human beings were created as fully formed unique beings who had the capacity to create and use simple and complex objects.
The Bible also records that the early generations of humans were making metal tools and musical instruments (Genesis 4:21-22). It was only after the human race was split up into small groups who were scattered over the face of the earth that people had to use whatever materials and objects they found in the environment. Maybe that meant using flakes that had been made by monkeys, as well as making them themselves.
Evidence News vol. 16, No. 20
2 November 2016
Creation Research Australia
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