@article {311422,
	title = {How similar are nut-cracking and stone-flaking? A functional approach to percussive technology},
	journal = {Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences},
	volume = {370},
	year = {2015},
	month = {10/2015},
	abstract = {<p>Various authors have suggested similarities between tool use in early hominins and chimpanzees. This has been particularly evident in studies of nut-cracking which is considered to be the most complex skill exhibited by wild apes, and has also been interpreted as a precursor of more complex stone-flaking abilities. It has been argued that there is no major qualitative difference between what the chimpanzee does when he cracks a nut and what early hominins did when they detached a flake from a core. In this paper, similarities and differences between skills involved in stone-flaking and nut-cracking are explored through an experimental protocol with human subjects performing both tasks. We suggest that a {\textquoteleft}functional{\textquoteright} approach to percussive action, based on the distinction between functional parameters that characterize each task and parameters that characterize the agent{\textquoteright}s actions and movements, is a fruitful method for understanding those constraints which need to be mastered to perform each task successfully, and subsequently, the nature of skill involved in both tasks.</p>
},
	doi = {10.1098/rstb.2014.0355},
	url = {http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/370/1682/20140355.abstract},
	author = {Bril, Blandine and Parry, Ross and Dietrich, Gilles}
}
