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. 2019 Oct 22:8:e46961.
doi: 10.7554/eLife.46961.

Group-specific archaeological signatures of stone tool use in wild macaques

Lydia V Luncz  1 , Mike Gill  1 , Tomos Proffitt  2 , Magdalena S Svensson  3 , Lars Kulik  4 , Suchinda Malaivijitnond  5   6
Affiliations

Group-specific archaeological signatures of stone tool use in wild macaques

Lydia V Luncz et al. Elife. .

Abstract

Stone tools in the prehistoric record are the most abundant source of evidence for understanding early hominin technological and cultural variation. The field of primate archaeology is well placed to improve our scientific knowledge by using the tool behaviours of living primates as models to test hypotheses related to the adoption of tools by early stone-age hominins. Previously we have shown that diversity in stone tool behaviour between neighbouring groups of long-tailed macaques (Macaca-fascicularis) could be explained by ecological and environmental circumstances (Luncz et al., 2017b). Here however, we report archaeological evidence, which shows that the selection and reuse of tools cannot entirely be explained by ecological diversity. These results suggest that tool-use may develop differently within species of old-world monkeys, and that the evidence of material culture can differ within the same timeframe at local geographic scales and in spite of shared environmental and ecological settings.

Keywords: ecology; long-tailed macaques; primate archaeology; primates; selection; stone tools; technology.

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Conflict of interest statement

LL, MG, TP, MS, LK, SM No competing interests declared

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.. Research site in the Ao Phang Nga National Park, Thailand.
(A) Southeastern tip of Boi Yai Island and (B) Lobi Bay on Yao Noi Island, both within Ao Phang Nga National Park, Southern Thailand.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.. Stone tools used by wild macaques in Ao Phang Nga National Park to exploit rock oysters (Saccostrea cucullate).
(a) Examples of stone tools used at Lobi Bay. (b) Examples of stone tools used on Boi Yai Island. (c) rock oyster prey species available on both islands and.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.. Stone tools used by macaques in Ao Phang Nga National Park to exploit Thais bitubercularis.
(a) Examples of stone tools used at Lobi Bay. (b) examples of stone tools used on Boi Yai Island. (c) Thais bitubercularis prey species available on both islands.
Figure 4.
Figure 4.. Intensity of damage (UWG) compared for stone tools between two sites (Lobi Bay and Boi Yai Island) in the Ao Phang Nga National Park.
The size of the circle indicates the respective number of tools included. (For underlying data, see Source data 1).
Figure 5.
Figure 5.. Selected tools used to crack open marine prey by wild macaques in Lobi Bay and Boi Yai Island.
(A) Differences in selected tool weight to crack open marine snails. (B) Differences in selected tool weight to crack open Thais bitubercularis. The plots are showing all quantiles and the CIs (grey). (For underlying data, see Source data 1).
Figure 6.
Figure 6.. Size of marine prey available at Lobi Bay and Boi Yai Island.
The plot is showing the mean with bootstrapped 95% confidence intervals.
Figure 7.
Figure 7.. Tools selected by wild macaques to crack open oysters at Lobi Bay and Boi Yai Island.
The plot is showing all quantiles and the CIs (grey). (For underlying data, see Source data 1).
Figure 8.
Figure 8.. Size of oysters available at Lobi Bay and Boi Yai Island.
The plot is showing the mean with bootstrapped 95% confidence intervals.
Figure 9.
Figure 9.. Availability of raw material at Lobi Bay and Boi Yai Island.
(A) Weight of stones available at point transects. (B) Number of availability of stones. The plots show the mean with bootstrapped 95% confidence intervals.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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