figshare
Browse
rsbl20170587_si_001.docx (10.17 kB)

Table S1 - S3 from Unique perceptuomotor control of stone hammers in wild monkeys.

Download (10.17 kB)
Version 2 2020-10-16, 10:19
Version 1 2017-12-15, 12:37
journal contribution
posted on 2018-01-02, 11:31 authored by Madhur Mangalam, Matheus Maia Pacheco, Patrícia Izar, Elisabetta Visalberghi, Dorothy Munkenbeck Fragaszy
We analysed the patterns of coordination of striking movement and perceptuomotor control of stone hammers in wild bearded capuchin monkeys, Sapajus libidinosus as they cracked open palm nut using hammers of different mass, a habitual behaviour in our study population. We aimed to determine why these monkeys cannot produce conchoidally fractured flakes as do contemporary human knappers or as did prehistoric hominin knappers. We found that the monkeys altered their patterns of coordination of movement to accommodate changes in hammer mass. By altering their patterns of coordination, the monkeys kept the strike's amplitude and the hammer's velocity at impact constant with respect to hammer mass. In doing so, the hammer's kinetic energy at impact—which determines the propagation of a fracture/crack in a nut—varied across hammers of different mass. The monkeys did not control the hammer's kinetic energy at impact, the key parameter a perceiver-actor should control while knapping stones. These findings support the hypothesis that the perceptuomotor control of stone hammers in wild bearded capuchin monkeys is inadequate to produce conchoidally fractured flakes by knapping stones, as do humans.

History

Usage metrics

    Biology Letters

    Categories

    Licence

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC