“Planet of the Apes” may have been on to something.
According to a new study published Thursday in Science, chimpanzees are constantly honing their tool-use skills — a process that has been going on for millennia, driven by the exchange of ideas through migration between populations.
Lead author Cassandra Gunasekaram points out that the discovery in chimpanzees – humans’ closest living relative – is also relevant to us, because it supports the idea that, in the mists of time, our own ape ancestors tried to improve their technologies. Took advantage of social relations. AFP.
Scientists have long marveled at the ability of chimpanzees to pass on complex behaviors, such as tool use, from one generation to the next.
Yet while human civilization has leapt from the Stone Age to the Space Age, chimpanzee “culture” – defined as socially learned behavior – appears to have remained stable.
Gunasekaram, a doctoral student at the University of Zurich, set out to challenge this perception.
Connections spark innovation
He and his colleagues combined genetic data tracing ancient chimpanzee migration across Africa with observations of 15 different foraging behaviors across dozens of populations and four subspecies.
These behaviors were classified into three levels: those that require no tools, those with simple tools, such as using chewed leaves as sponges to suck up water from tree pores, and The most complex, involving toolsets.
A notable example of the use of a toolset comes from Congo, where chimpanzees use a strong stick to dig tunnels into the ground to reach termite nests, then plant stems to “fish” for the termites in the tunnel. modified by biting its end into a brush. He has made it.
The study found that advanced tool use is strongly associated with populations experiencing genetic exchange over the past 5,000–15,000 years, suggesting that such behaviors spread when groups interact.
Areas where the three subspecies overlap demonstrated the most complex tool use, highlighting how cross-group connections foster cultural knowledge.
In contrast, simpler behaviour, such as foraging without tools, appears to be less linked to migration and probably evolved independently in different areas.
forage efficiently
Gunasekaram said it shows how business ideas and incremental innovation have been crucial to human technological progress, taking us from early abacus to modern smartphones.
“They have become so complex that no single person can redesign them,” he said.
But unlike humans, chimpanzees have few opportunities to encounter new individuals and ideas – migration occurs gradually, driven by sexually mature females moving to new communities to avoid inbreeding. .
Analyzing ancient genetic flows helped the team overcome one of the biggest challenges in studying the evolution of chimpanzee culture: the limited window of observation, as the species has only been scientifically researched for about a century. .
What’s more, “chimpanzee tools are made of sticks and stems, which are all worn out,” Gunasekaram explained, making it almost impossible to trace how their artifacts have evolved over time.
So, will chimpanzees one day rival human talent? barely. But given enough time, they can become more skilled foragers.
For example, some populations are already more advanced at cracking nuts with hammers and anvils made of stone, and one particularly innovative group even invented a stabilizer for the anvil, Gunasekaram said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
