THE STONE-TOOL TECHNOLOGY OF CAPUCHIN MONKEYS - POSSIBLE IMPLICATIONSFOR THE EVOLUTION OF SYMBOLIC COMMUNICATION IN HOMINIDS

Research with captive capuchin monkeys has demonstrated that these New World primates produce flaked stone artifacts that they use as cuttin g tools, and that they exhibit patterns of right-handedness analogous to those of tool-making Plio-Pleistocene hominids. These findings indi cate that the cognitive and biomechanical conditions of pre-adaptation for the production and use of stone tools are present in extant nonhu man primates, and that capuchins can be used to model processes associ ated with the evolution of technology and symbolic communication in hu mans.