A species that has evolved enough to use tools like stone humans

The origins of stone tool behavior by Stone Age humans began in an unexpected way, revealed through a startling experiment by the University of Tübingen and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Technology.

According to Sci News, orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus) have been tested for using primitive tools that humans used in the Stone Age. It is a type of stone hammer and flint knife, whose unearthed artifacts are about 3.3 million years old.

Dr. Monte-Rodrigo from the Department of Prehistoric and Quaternary Ecology at the University of Tübingen (Germany), lead author of the study tested on 5 orangutans that had never been trained.

Prehistoric stone tools

In the first test, they tested the ability to craft and use the tool by providing a concrete hammer, a raw stone core, and 2 food containers. To get to the food, they need to create something enough to sever the wire and the silicone coating to open the can.

However, the two orangutans only hit the floor and walls with their hammers, not aiming at the rock core.

But the second experiment brought a surprise. This time, the orangutans were given a sharp piece of flint just like prehistoric man-made stone tools, enough to cut the silicon to open the food container. The scientists fabricated this piece of flint in front of three other orangutans by hitting the core of the rock with a concrete hammer to create a sharp edge, and leaving the two previously observed.

The 3 orangutans given ice knives proved they were easy to use to cut the silicone wrap and get the food out of the can.

More interestingly, one of the two female orangutans at first imitated a human, using a concrete hammer to hit the rock core towards the edges to create a cutting tool just like the others!

This result shows that two prerequisites for the appearance of stone tools are the recognition of sharp rocks as cutting tools and the ability to beat to create sharp pieces of rock, which may have existed since the time of the last common ancestor. our end and the orangutan, 13 million years ago.