Abstract
We examined the production of stone took by capuchins (Cebus apella). Eleven subjects used five reduction techniques to produce 346 stone tools (48 cores and 298 flakes). They produced a sharp edge on 83% of the cores and largest flakes. Three monkeys later used a sample of these objects as cutting tools. These results demonstrate that monkeys produce lithic tools analogous to those produced by Oldowan hominids.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Beck, B. B. (1980).Animal Tool Behavior: The Use and Manufacture of Tools by Animals, Garland STPM Press, New York.
Boesch, G, and Boesch, H. (1990). Tool use and tool making in wild chimpanzees.Folia Primatol. 54: 86–99.
Boinski, S. (1988). Use of a club by a white-faced capuchin(Cebus capucinus) to attack a venomous snake(Bothrops asper).Am. J. Primatol. 14: 177–179.
Calvin, W. (1993). The unitary hypothesis: A common neural circuitry for novel manipulations, language, plan-ahead, and throwing? In Gibson, K. R., and Ingold, T. (eds.),Tools, Language, and Cognition in Human Evolution, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 230–250.
Chevalier-Skolnikoff, S. (1990). Tool use by wildCebus monkeys at Santa Rosa National Park, Costa Rica.Primates 31: 375–383.
Davidson, I. (1991). The archaeology of language origins—A review.Antiquity 65: 39–48.
Fernandes, M. E. B. (1991). Tool use and predation of oysters(Crassostrea rhizophorae) by the tufted capuchin,Cebus apella apella, in brackish water mangrove swamp.Primates 32: 529–531.
Fragaszy, D. M. (1986). Time budgets and foraging behavior in wedgecapped capuchins(Cebus olivaceous): Age and sex differences. In King, F., and Taub, D. (eds.),Current Perspectives in Primate Social Dynamics, Van Nostrand, New York, pp. 159–174.
Isaac, G. L. (1982). The earliest archaeological traces. In Clark, J. D. (ed.),The Cambridge History of Africa, Vol. 1. From the Earliest Times to c. 500 B.C., Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Izawa, K. (1979). Foods and feeding behavior of wild black-capped capuchins(Cebus apella).Primates 20: 57–76.
Janson, C. H. (1985). Aggressive competition and individual food consumption in wild brown capuchin monkeys(Cebus apella).Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol 18: 125–138.
Leakey, M. D. (1971).Olduvai Gorge, Vol. 3. Excavations in Beds I and II, Cambridge University Press, London.
McGrew, W. C. (1992).Chimpanzee Material Culture. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
McGrew, W. C. (1993). The intelligent use of tools: Twenty propositions. In Gibson, K. R., and Ingold, T. (eds.),Tools, Language, and Cognition in Human Evolution, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 151–170.
Parker, S. T., and Gibson, K. R. (1977). Object manipulation, tool use and sensorimotor intelligence as feeding adaptations inCebus monkeys and great apes.J. Hum. Evol. 6: 623–641.
Pellant, C. (1992).Rocks and Minerals, Dorling Kindersley, New York.
Potts, R. (1988).Early Hominid Activities at Olduvai, Aldine de Gruyter, New York.
Schick, K. D., and Toth, N. (1993).Making Silent Stones Speak Human Evolution and the Dawn of Technology, Simon & Schuster, New York.
Toth, N. (1985). The Oldowan reassessed: A close look at early stone artifacts.J. Archaeol. Sci. 12: 101–120.
Toth, N., Schick, K. D., Savage-Rumbaugh, E. S., Sevcik, R. A., and Rumbaugh, D. M. (1993). Pan the tool-maker: Investigations into the stone tool-making and tool-using capabilities of a bonobo(Pan paniscus).J. Archaeol. Sci. 20: 81–91.
Visalberghi, E. (1990). Tool use inCebus. Folia Primatol. 54: 146–154.
Westergaard, G. C. (1994). The subsistence technology of capuchins.Int. J. Primatol. 15: 899–906.
Westergaard, G. G., and Fragaszy, D. M. (1987). The manufacture and use of tools by capuchin monkeys(Cebus apella).J. Comp. Psychol. 101: 159–168.
Westergaard, G. C., and Suomi, S. J. (1994a). The use and modification of bone tools by capuchin monkeys.Curr. Anthropol. 35: 75–77.
Westergaard, G. C., and Suomi, S. J. (1994b). A simple stone-tool technology in monkeys.J. Hum. Evol 27: 399–404.
Westergaard, G. C., and Suomi, S. J. (1994c). Aimed throwing of stones by tufted capuchin monkeys(Cebus apella).Hum. Evol. 9: 323–329.
Wright, R. V. (1972). Imitative learning of a flaked tool technology: The case of an orangutan.Mankind 8: 296–306.
Wynn, T., and McGrew, W. C. (1989). An ape's view of the Oldowan.Man 24: 383–398.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Westergaard, G.C., Suomi1, S.J. The stone tools of capuchins (Cebus apella). International Journal of Primatology 16, 1017–1024 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02696114
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02696114