US Edition'Chimpanzee 'engineers' have implications for understanding human technological evolution
- On March 24, 2025, a multidisciplinary research team led by Dr. Alejandra Pascual-Garrido, a Research Affiliate at the University of Oxford, published a study in iScience revealing that chimpanzees in Gombe Stream National Park, Tanzania, exhibit engineering skills by selecting plants with specific mechanical properties for termite fishing.
- Termites provide chimpanzees with essential nutrients like energy, fat, vitamins, minerals, and protein, motivating them to develop effective tool-making strategies for accessing this food source.
- The team, including scientists from the Max Planck Institute, the Jane Goodall Institute in Tanzania, and several universities, used a mechanical testing device in field studies to determine that chimpanzees preferentially select plant materials that are more flexible, as plant species never used by chimpanzees were found to be 175% more rigid.
- Dr. Pascual-Garrido stated, "This is the first comprehensive evidence that wild chimpanzees select tool materials for termite fishing based on specific mechanical properties," while Adam van Casteren added, "This finding has important implications for understanding how humans might have evolved their remarkable tool using abilities."
- The study's findings suggest that rudimentary engineering and 'folk physics' are deeply rooted in chimpanzee tool-making culture, offering valuable insights into the cognitive processes behind tool construction, material evaluation, and the evolution of tool use among early humans, especially considering the scarcity of perishable tools in the archaeological record.
15 Articles
15 Articles
Chimpanzees act as 'engineers', choosing materials to make tools based on structural and mechanical properties
Researchers have discovered that chimpanzees living in Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania employ a degree of engineering when making their tools, deliberately choosing plants that provide materials that produce more flexible tools for termite fishing.
'Chimpanzee 'engineers' have implications for understanding human technological evolution
A multidisciplinary team of researchers led by Dr. Alejandra Pascual-Garrido, Research Affiliate at the School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography, University of Oxford, has discovered that chimpanzees living in Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania employ a degree of engineering when making their tools, deliberately choosing plants that provide materials that produce more flexible tools for termite fishing.
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