Behavioral and cognitive perspectives on the evolution of tool use from wild chimpanzees

Abstract

The extensively studied features of tool use in modern chimpanzees can provide important insights into possible features of tool use in early hominins. Here we review findings from field studies of chimpanzee tool use in four different domains: tool making and associative tool use, the acquisition of tool-use skills, teaching, and cumulative cultural evolution. These findings demonstrate that studies of chimpanzees are particularly relevant to our understanding of cultural evolution. Further, we argue that there remains much to be gained through continued integration of cognitive and behavioral approaches by comparative psychologists and biological anthropologists to elucidate the evolutionary processes that have shaped our lineage.