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Stone tools improve diet quality in wild monkeys

Tool use is a fundamental feature of human evolution. Stone tools are in the archaeological record from 3.4 Ma, even before Homo,1 and the use of stone tools probably predated the split between hominins and panins.2 Using tools (hereafter, tooling cf Fragaszy and Mangalam3) is hypothesized to have i...

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Published in:Current biology 2022-09, Vol.32 (18), p.4088-4092.e3
Main Authors: Izar, Patrícia, Peternelli-dos-Santos, Lucas, Rothman, Jessica M., Raubenheimer, David, Presotto, Andrea, Gort, Gerrit, Visalberghi, Elisabetta M., Fragaszy, Dorothy M.
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Language:English
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Summary:Tool use is a fundamental feature of human evolution. Stone tools are in the archaeological record from 3.4 Ma, even before Homo,1 and the use of stone tools probably predated the split between hominins and panins.2 Using tools (hereafter, tooling cf Fragaszy and Mangalam3) is hypothesized to have improved hominins’ foraging efficiency or access to high-quality foods.4–7 This hypothesis is supported if feeding with tools positively contributes to diet quality in extant non-human primates or if foraging efficiency is increased by tooling. However, the contribution of tooling to non-human primates’ foraging success has never been investigated through a direct analysis of nutritional ecology.8,9 We used multi-dimensional nutritional geometry to analyze energy and macronutrients (nonstructural carbohydrates, lipids, and protein) in the diets of wild capuchin monkeys (Sapajus libidinous) that routinely crack palm nuts with stone hammers.10,11 We show that eating nuts obtained through tooling helps monkeys to achieve more consistent dietary intakes. Tooling increased the net energy gain by 50% and decreased the proportion of fiber ingested by 7%. Tooling also increased the daily non-protein energy intake. By contrast, protein intake remained constant across foraging days, suggesting a pattern of macronutrient regulation called protein prioritization, which is also found in contemporary humans.8,9 In addition, tooling reduced dispersion in the ratio of protein to non-protein energy, suggesting a role in macronutrient balancing. Our findings suggest that tooling prior to tool making could have substantially increased the nutritional security of ancestral hominins, sowing the seeds for cultural development.5,7 [Display omitted] •Tool use by capuchins monkeys had no effect on the amount of food eaten•Still, tool use improved nutrition by providing a more consistently balanced diet•Diets obtained with tools comprised higher levels of fat, carbohydrate, and energy•Diets obtained with tools comprised lower levels of nutrient-diluting fiber Izar et al. show that capuchin monkeys obtain diets with higher levels of fat, carbohydrate, and energy and lower levels of nutrient-diluting fiber on the days when they use stone hammers to feed on palm nuts versus the days they do not. Using natural stone tools in feeding improves monkeys’ diet quality and may have done the same for ancestral hominins.
ISSN:0960-9822
1879-0445
DOI:10.1016/j.cub.2022.07.056