You would never have imagined that chimpanzees had entered the "Stone Age" thousands of years ago, and even that scientists in parts of West Africa had found that some chimpanzees would even build "temples" and shout, as if performing some kind of "ritual".
Could it be that chimpanzees are about to evolve into "new humans"?
On February 27, 2007, a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences said that archaeologists had found stones dating back to 4,300 years ago in the Côte d'Ivoire region of Africa, where chimpanzees suspected of smashing nuts.
Of course, these stones are thought to have been used by chimpanzees because they are much larger than those used by early humans. And, most importantly, it is of the same type as the stones used by modern chimpanzees.
In addition, by examining the food residues (starch grains) left on these stones, they found that those nuts were of the same type as those eaten by modern chimpanzees, unlike the nuts eaten by humans.
According to this discovery, chimpanzees have begun to use stone tools for at least 4,000 years, does this mean that they have entered the "Stone Age"?
Some people have questioned whether these chimpanzees were imitating humans more than 4,000 years ago.
Archaeologists respond that from the information now known, more than 4,000 years ago, there was no trace of human activity in that area, so these chimpanzees should not be imitating humans.
However, due to this strange discovery, scientists are also trying to solve a problem, that is, is it that humans themselves invented and used stone tools?
Or is it that their ancient ancestors began to use stone tools long before humans and great apes separated?
At present, this issue has not been resolved. However, some people believe that from the stones found so far, it is actually impossible to prove whether the starch grains on them are left by smashing nuts, or whether they are formed because the stones are buried with starch-containing foods, so it should not be too early to draw conclusions.
In fact, using stones to knock out food, many modern chimpanzees will use this skill. Moreover, according to relevant scientific research, this behavior is a social phenomenon of chimpanzees, which usually requires "seniors" to teach to "younger generations", and often takes up to 7 years of study.
Of course, in theory, only humans have this kind of cultural behavior, so the phenomenon of chimpanzees is obviously a major challenge to conventional wisdom.
However, chimpanzees are strange on the one hand, and scientists have found a strange phenomenon in parts of West Africa.
Some male chimpanzees will store rock blocks in tree holes. And, at times, it would pick up one of the stones and dangle around the tree hole, shouting in its mouth as if it had a word.
It then threw the stone again at the tree, seemingly deliberately rubbing marks on the tree. Finally, the stone was put back into the tree hole.
Scientists are very puzzled by this behavior of this chimpanzee, after all, we all know that almost all animal behavior is for survival, and they have no culture, beliefs, etc., how can they do these seemingly meaningless things?
Even, some scientists believe that the reason for such behavior is likely to be a new way for male chimpanzees to show their territory, strength, and may even be some kind of primary religious ritual.
However, it is not possible to draw conclusions at this time, but chimpanzees in the eastern part of these areas do not behave similarly. So, more research may be needed to find out.
In fact, for these behaviors of chimpanzees, I personally believe that chimpanzees are originally an animal with a very high IQ, second only to humans.
Moreover, primates belonging to humans seem to be inherently stronger in their ability to learn and think.
For example, as early as 2017, in Panama, some researchers found that a local capuchin monkey would use stones to smash nuts; In Thailand, long-tailed macaques even collect human hair and use it as floss.
In April 2019, in a scenic spot in Chongqing, mainland China, there was even a chimpanzee who washed clothes, and it was also ridiculed as "the labor model of the animal kingdom".
Chimpanzees, of course, have never stopped evolving, but what about the future? Will they really evolve into higher-level intelligent chimpanzees?
In fact, it is difficult from the current point of view. This is mainly because there are already humans on Earth with higher IQs than they do. This means that their activities are actually very limited, after all, many of the earth's resources are occupied by humans.
Moreover, if you want to achieve qualitative evolution, it is not a matter of one day or two days, it must be done through a lot of practice. But I'm sorry, but chimpanzees should not have this opportunity at the moment.