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Published online 12 February 2007 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news070212-1

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Oldest chimp tools found in West Africa

Apes could have passed down skills for thousands of years.

In the West African rainforest, archaeologists have found ancient chimpanzee stone tools thousands of years older than the previous oldest finds in the same area. The discovery suggests that chimps may have passed cultural information down the generations for more than 4,000 years.

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