Generations of macaques used ’tools’ to open their oysters and nuts

A new study looks into the history of stone tools used by wild macaques in coastal Thailand. It finds they have been using them for decades..and possibly thousands of years.. to crack open shellfish and nuts. While there have been several studies observing living non-human primates, this is the first report into the archaeological evidence of tool use by Old World monkeys. The research, led by the Primate Archaeology Research Group at the University of Oxford, opens up novel research possibilities. The paper, published in the Journal of Human Evolution , says this is just the first step in finding out how their behaviour compares with that of early humans living in similar environments. From a distance in boats off the coast, researchers spent hundreds of hours watching how groups of macaques in the marine national park on Piak Nam Yai Island selected stones as tools to crush marine snails, nuts and crabs.