[(Title)] Panama Monkeys Have Begun Using Rocks as Tools, Beginning Their Own Stone Age

A few million years ago, our human ancestors began picking up rocks and using them as tools, marking the beginning of the Stone Age.

数百万年前，我们的人类祖先开始采掘岩石，把它们当作工具，这标志着石器时代的开始。

Now a group of monkeys in Panama may have entered a Stone Age of their own, after being observed using rocks smash open nuts, shellfish, and other objects, according to a report in New Scientist.

据《新科学家》杂志的一篇报道说，巴拿马的一群猴子在观察时已经进入自己的石器时代，它们用石头砸碎开坚果、贝类和其他物品。

Researchers aren't sure how long the Panamanian monkeys have been using stone tools, but they are somewhat unique in that they have been isolated on the island of Jicarón for about 6 million years.

研究人员无法确定巴拿马猴子使用石器有多长时间，但他们有些独特，因为他们被隔离在吉卡尔岛上约600万年。

The skill appears to be learned, and was mostly evident in a handful of males.

这个技能似乎是需要习的的，而且主要由少数男性掌握。

The population of white-faced capuchin monkeys are one of the few non-human primates known to have achieved the feat, along with a population of chimpanzees in west Africa, a group of macaques in Thailand,and another group of capuchin monkeys in South America.

白脸卷尾猴的数量是为数不多的非人类灵长类动物之一，其他还包括西非的一群黑猩猩，泰国的一群猕猴和南美洲的另一组卷尾猴。

Primates in the wild have been known to use other objects such as sticks, but the use of stone tools is rare for them, although why they don't remain something of a mystery.

众所周知，野外的灵长类动物会使用其他物体，如木棍，但使用石制工具对他们来说很少见，尽管他们没有留下什么神秘的东西。

Biologist believed until a few decades ago that humans were the only species that made extensive use of tools such as rocks.

生物学家相信人类才是唯一一个大量使用岩石等工具的物种，这一观点直到几十年前才有所改变。