First GIS analysis of modern stone tools used by wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) in Bossou, Guinea, West Africa

PLoS One. 2015 Mar 20;10(3):e0121613. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0121613. eCollection 2015.

Abstract

Stone tool use by wild chimpanzees of West Africa offers a unique opportunity to explore the evolutionary roots of technology during human evolution. However, detailed analyses of chimpanzee stone artifacts are still lacking, thus precluding a comparison with the earliest archaeological record. This paper presents the first systematic study of stone tools used by wild chimpanzees to crack open nuts in Bossou (Guinea-Conakry), and applies pioneering analytical techniques to such artifacts. Automatic morphometric GIS classification enabled to create maps of use wear over the stone tools (anvils, hammers, and hammers/ anvils), which were blind tested with GIS spatial analysis of damage patterns identified visually. Our analysis shows that chimpanzee stone tool use wear can be systematized and specific damage patterns discerned, allowing to discriminate between active and passive pounders in lithic assemblages. In summary, our results demonstrate the heuristic potential of combined suites of GIS techniques for the analysis of battered artifacts, and have enabled creating a referential framework of analysis in which wild chimpanzee battered tools can for the first time be directly compared to the early archaeological record.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Artifacts
  • Geographic Information Systems*
  • Guinea
  • Pan troglodytes / physiology*
  • Tool Use Behavior / physiology*

Grants and funding

Funding by the Leverhulme Trust (IN-052) is gratefully acknowledged. The research in Guinea was supported by a MEXT grant #20002001 and #24000001, JSPS-U04-PWS to TM, FCT-Portugal (SFRH/BD/36169/2007), and a Dissertation Fieldwork Grant from the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research to SC. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.