Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id MAA02183 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Tue, 28 May 2002 12:08:58 +0100 Message-ID: <570E2BEE7BC5A34684EE5914FCFC368C10FD13@fillan.stir.ac.uk> From: Vincent Campbell <v.p.campbell@stir.ac.uk> To: "'memetics@mmu.ac.uk'" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Subject: RE: Report: chimps used simple tools 5 million years ago Date: Tue, 28 May 2002 11:02:50 +0100 X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.5.2653.19) Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1" X-Filter-Info: UoS MailScan 0.1 [D 1] X-MailScanner: Found to be clean Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
<Hey Vincent,
> I won't get a chance to look at the actual Science article till this
> weekend (I'm an attorney living in rural upstate New York. Perhaps you
> quicker access?) Bout six months I mentioned some articles that discuss
> chimpanzee nut cracking as it has been presently observed. Based upon
> what
> they described I'm guessing that the stones were chipped in a pattern
> consistent with modern nut cracking, that they were too heavy for humans
> to
> have used effectively in that fashion, and that some actual chimp
> skeletons
> were found nearby to date the whole thing.>
>
Yeah, I guess you're right, this does sound like strong evidence if
this is the case.
<When I brought it up previously I think Wade asked whether perhaps
the
> chimps had picked it up from humans. It couldn't have been ruled out, but
>
> the difference in tool size suggested that the chimps at least had the
> intelligence to modify something they observed humans doing. Based on
> what
> CNN is reporting was in the 'Science' article chimpanzees would have had
> to
> have picked it from 'ardipithecus ramidus' (no I'm not that good. I had to
>
> look it up.) Perhaps primitive tool use started with the common ancestor
> of chimpanzees and humans.>
>
This is an interesting question, and again one difficult to find out
from the fossil/archseological record. If it was possible though, putting
cultural transmission back several million years really adds to the cultural
evolution argument (a bit like the geological age of the earth gave natural
selection plenty of time to work).
Vincent
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