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Impacted Bones: Can Extant Primates Help Identify Tool Use in Early Hominins?
Rachel M Hurwitz1, Katarina Almeida-Warren1,2,3, Susana Carvalho2,3,4
1School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography, Institute of Human Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
Evolutionary Anthropology
|July 20, 2026
Summary
Investigating primate bone structure reveals how percussive tool use, like nut-cracking, leaves distinct signatures. This new method analyzes bone asymmetry to understand early hominin tool use.
Area of Science:
- Paleoanthropology
- Primatology
- Bioarchaeology
Background:
- The origins and evolution of hominin tool use remain key paleoanthropological questions.
- Studying extant primate tool use offers insights into fossil evidence.
- Current methods for assessing tool-use capabilities in extinct species have limitations.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop an innovative methodological framework for analyzing osteological remains for evidence of percussive tool use.
- To quantify the potential
- damage signature
- of percussive tool use on primate bone.
- To propose a shift in scanning methodology, analyzing both sides of the body to understand the effects of tool use.
Main Methods:
- Review of current methods for extrapolating tool-use capabilities in extinct and extant taxa.
- Development of a framework to analyze osteological remains for evidence of percussive tool use.
- Bilateral scanning of skeletal remains, directional asymmetry analysis, and machine learning to discern patterns of variation.
- Case study using chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes ssp.) and other lithic percussion-using primates like long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis ssp.) and capuchins (Sapajus and Cebus sp.).
Main Results:
- Percussive tool use, such as nut-cracking, can induce morphological changes in primate bone due to mechanical strain.
- These changes may manifest as directional asymmetry between dominant and non-dominant limbs or compared to non-tool-using primates.
- The proposed methodology aims to quantify these bone alterations, creating a detectable "damage signature".
Conclusions:
- The proposed bilateral scanning and machine learning approach offers a novel way to detect percussive tool use in primate skeletal remains.
- This methodology can be extrapolated to study the impact of tool use on extinct hominin bones.
- Understanding bone morphology in relation to tool use enhances our knowledge of early hominin behavior and evolution.
