Chimps dig up clues to human past?

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An arid woodland savanna Ugalla -- where chimpanzees are using digging tools to collect roots tubers and bulbs -- is thought to be an environment similar to those exploited by the first hominids. Credit: James Moore
An arid woodland savanna, Ugalla -- where chimpanzees are using digging tools to collect roots, tubers and bulbs -- is thought to be an environment similar to those exploited by the first hominids. Credit: James Moore

One of the keys enabling the earliest human ancestors to trade a forest home for more open country may have been the ability to gather underground foods. Now a team of scientists reports for the first time that in Tanzania our closest living relatives, chimpanzees, are using sticks and pieces of bark to dig for edible roots, tubers and bulbs.


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