According to the Science Advances journal, the ability to intentionally make sharp-edged stone flakes is considered a pivotal point in the evolution of hominids.

What is surprising is not that they process nuts, but also shellfish.

Researchers were able to prove that many “of the tools used by these monkeys fall within the range of those commonly associated with early hominins.”

The newly discovered macaque sharp-edged stone tools provide new insights into how early technology might have been initiated in our earliest ancestors.

“Cracking nuts by using sharp-edged stone hammers and anvils, similar to what some primates do nowadays, has been suggested by some as a possible precursor to the intentional production of stone tools.

The Scientific Report magazine, on the other hand, previously pointed out that chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) are the animals that use the most diverse range of tools, after humans. For example, they use sticks to get ants and termites as well as stones to crack nuts.

The scientists in this study closely monitored a community of chimpanzees in Uganda and the Republic of Congo (Africa) for months, cataloguing not only their use of tools, but also their potential to use them in different environments or within their social group.

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