Damn dirty apes used tools before you, bub
Primate news! The Guardian reports:
The first prehistoric evidence for a "chimpanzee stone age" has been uncovered by archaeologists working in an African rainforest. Primitive stone hammers and anvils dating from 4,300 years ago were excavated from pits at three sites in the Taï national park in Ivory Coast ... [Researchers suspect] that early tool use was not learned from humans, but may have been passed on to chimps and humans alike from a more primitive ancestor.
Heather Whipp from LiveScience continues:
Chimpanzees learned to make and use stone tools on their own, rather than copying humans, new evidence suggests ... Chimpanzees have been observed using similar tools for the past few centuries, but scientists assumed the intelligent apes were simply copying local people cutting open fruit nearby ... The technology is transmitted socially -- or taught, rather than instinctive from birth -- and can take up to seven years for a young chimp to master, many scientists have found.
It didn't take long for humans to start meeting their demands (though naturally, being inferior, we screwed up and focused on monkeys instead, not apes... remember, monkeys have tails):
The Los Angeles Zoo paid $4,500 to an expert in the ancient Chinese art of feng shui to ensure three endangered golden monkeys on loan from China can have a strong life force ... Feng shui focuses on balance in design to promote health and happiness ... "It's very experimental," [feng shui expert Simona] Mainini said. "We don't have any books on feng shui for monkeys. We just have to assume that Darwin is correct and that there is a connection and what is good for humans is good for monkeys."
