Evolution in action? Chimps beginning to use spears

[ck4829]

Chimps have been observed hunting with spears, researchers report, a startling addition to their known use of tools that may shed light on hunting among humanity's early ancestors.

In a troop located in Senegal, at least 10 chimps were seen crafting spears to hunt small monkeys called bush babies. The anthropologists recount 22 spear bouts in the last two years, in study released today by the journal Current Biology.

The chimps live in a wooded savanna similar to the plains from which some human ancestors are thought to have arisen, says lead author Jill Pruetz of Iowa State University in Ames. She says the report may offer insights into Australopithecine human precursors, who were hunters and lived more than 1.2 million years ago.

"I didn't believe it and was quite startled when I saw it for myself," Pruetz says, after her co-author, Paco Bertolani of the United Kingdom's Cambridge University, first reported witnessing a spear hunt.

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/discoveries/2007-02-22-chimps-spears_x.htm?csp=1