New methods to identify wooden tools with major implications for the origins of tool use

Highlights

• Chimpanzee percussive foraging leaves permanent damage on wooden tools

• Percussive activities leave diagnostic patterns visible in 2D images and 3D surfaces

• Machine learning can diagnose damage patterns even when details are obscured

• Percussive activities produce irreversible damage to the internal structure of wood

📢So glad to see this work led by @LydieL23 out after years of very hard work. This is the tip of the iceberg! If we wish to find the 'unfindable' we must be able to ID artefacts & defy old ideas about preservation & diagnostic traits @primobevolab @oxford_anthro @ICArEHB
🧵1/6 pic.twitter.com/8xZGT79zZK

— Susana Carvalho (@carvalhoprimate) October 28, 2022

Luncz L.V., Braun D.R., Marreiros J., Bamford M., Zheng C., Soiret S.P., Junghenn P., Buckley Z., Yao X., Carvalho S. 2022. Chimpanzee wooden tool analysis advances the identification of percussive technology. iScience 25(11). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2022.105315