Gc. Westergaard, THE STONE-TOOL TECHNOLOGY OF CAPUCHIN MONKEYS - POSSIBLE IMPLICATIONSFOR THE EVOLUTION OF SYMBOLIC COMMUNICATION IN HOMINIDS, World archaeology, 27(1), 1995, pp. 1-9
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.