Publications

Publications below are directly derived from, or (below that) recent publications related to the STONECULT project.

See also here for our group blog where we sometimes discuss our latest papers and other relevant studies in the field

1. Directly derived/funded by ERC:

• Li, L., Reeves, J. S., Lin, S. C., Tennie, C., & McPherron, S. P. (2022). Quantifying knapping actions: a method for measuring the angle of blow on flakes. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, 14, 1-16.

• Snyder, W. D., Reeves, J. S., & Tennie, C. (2022). Early knapping techniques do not necessitate cultural transmission. Science Advances, 8, eabo2894.

• Motes-Rodrigo, A., McPherron, S. P., Archer, W., Hernandez-Aguilar, R. A., & Tennie, C. (2022). Experimental investigation of orangutans’ lithic percussive and sharp stone tool behaviours. PloS ONE, 17, e0263343.

• Orellana Figueroa, J. D., Reeves, J. S., McPherron, S. P., & Tennie, C. (2021). A proof of concept for machine learning-based virtual knapping using neural networks. Scientific Reports, 11, 1-12.

• Motes‐Rodrigo, A., & Tennie, C. (2021). Captive great apes tend to innovate simple tool behaviors quickly. American Journal of Primatology, e23311.

• Bandini, E., Grossmann, J., Funk, M., Albiach-Serrano, A., Tennie, C. (2021) Naïve orangutans (Pongo abelii and Pongo pygmaeus) individually acquire nut-cracking using hammer tool. American Journal of Primatology. Funded by ERC: C Tennie. See also these two twitter threads - this one focused on the methods and results, and this one focused on the broader implications.

• Bandini, E., Motes-Rodrigo, A., Archer, W., Minchin, T., Axelsen, H., Hernandez-Aguilar, R. A., McPherron, S.P., & Tennie, C. (2021). Naïve, unenculturated chimpanzees fail to make and use flaked stone tools. Open Research Europe, 1, 20. See also this and this twitter thread.

• Motes-Rodrigo, A. & Tennie, C. (2021). The method of local restriction: in search of great ape culture-dependent forms. Biological Reviews. Online first. See also two twitter threads - this one focused on the results, and this one focused on the method.

• Bandini, E., Bandini, M. & Tennie, C. (2021). A short report on the extent of stone handling behavior across otter species. Animal Behavior and Cognition, 8: 15-22. Open access. See also this twitter thread.

• Tennie, C., Bandini, E., van Schaik, C.P. & Hopper, L.M. (2020). The zone of latent solutions and its relevance to understanding ape cultures. Biology & Philosophy. 23: 55. Open access. See also this twitter thread.

• Tennie, C., Hopper, L. & van Schaik, C.P. (2020). On the origin of cumulative culture: consideration of the role of copying in culture-dependent traits and a reappraisal of the zone of latent solutions hypothesis. In: Chimpanzees in Context: A Comparative Perspective on Chimpanzee Behavior, Cognition, Conservation, and Welfare. Ed.: Ross, S & Hopper, L; University of Chicago Press.

• Tennie, C. & van Schaik, C. P. (2020). Spontaneous (minimal) ritual in non-human great apes? Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences. B37520190423 See also this twitter thread.

• Bandini, E., Motes-Rodrigo, A., Steele, M.P., Rutz, C., & Tennie, C. (2020). Examining the mechanisms underlying the acquisition of animal tool behaviour. Biology Letters. 1620200122. Open acccess. See also this short twitter thread.

• Schmidt, P., Rageot, M., Blessing, M., & Tennie, C. (2020). The Zandmotor data do not resolve the question whether Middle Paleolithic birch tar making was complex or not. PNAS.

• Dogandžić, T., Abdolazadeh, A., Leader, G., Li, L., McPherron, S. P., Tennie, C., & Dibble, H. L. (2020). The results of lithic experiments performed on glass cores are applicable to other raw materials. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, 12 (2), 44.

• van Schaik, C. P., Pradhan, G. R., & Tennie, C. (2019). Teaching and curiosity: sequential drivers of cumulative cultural evolution in the hominin lineage. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 73 (1), 2.

• Tennie, C. (2019). The zone of latent solution (ZLS) account remains the most parsimonious explanation for early stone tools. Current Anthropology. Comment on: Stout et al. 2019 "Archaeology and the origins of human cumulative culture" in Current Anthropology.

• Neadle, D., Allritz, M., & Tennie, C. (2017). Food cleaning in gorillas: Social learning is a possibility but not a necessity. PloS ONE, 12 (12), e0188866.

• Tennie, C., Premo, L.S., Braun, D.R. & McPherron, S. P. (2017). Resetting the null hypothesis: early stone tools and cultural transmission. Forum Article in: Current Anthropology

2. Recent papers that are most related to the project - some partly funded by ERC:

(for more and earlier work, see https://sites.google.com/view/claudiotennie/publications)

• Farrar, B. G., Krupenye, C., Motes-Rodrigo, A., Tennie, C., Fischer, J., Altschul, D. M. & Ostojic, L. (2022) Replication and Reproducibility in Primate Cognition Research. In: Primate Cognitive Studies (eds. M. J. Beran & B. Schwartz). Cambridge University Press. A preprint can be found here.

• Tennie, C. (2021). Humans (but not other apes) frequently cumulate know-how. Comment on: Vasen & Houkes (2021) “Is human culture cumulative?” in Current Anthropology, 62, 231-232.

• Motes-Rodrigo, A., Mundry, R., Call, J., Tennie, C. (2021). Evaluating the influence of action- and subject-specific factors on chimpanzee action copying. Registered Report in Royal Society Open Science. 8: 200228200228. See also these twitter threads: 1, 2 and 3.

• Bandini, E. & Tennie, C. (2020). Exploring the role of individual learning in animal tool-use. PeerJ

• Reindl, E., Gwilliams, A.L., Dean, L.G., Kendal, R.L. & Tennie, C. (2020). Skills and motivations underlying children’s cumulative cultural learning: case not closed. Palgrave Communications. 6, 106. See also this twitter thread.

• Neldner, K., Reindl, E., Tennie, C., Grant, J., Tomaselli, K. & Nielsen, M., (2020). A cross-cultural investigation of young children's spontaneous invention of tool use behaviours. RSOS. Online first. This paper is open access - so you can download it cost-free from the journal's website.

• Tennie, C. (2019). Could non-human great apes also have cultural evolutionary psychology? Behavioral and Brain Sciences. Comment on: Heyes 2019 "Précis of cognitive gadgets: The cultural evolution of thinking" in BBS.

• Schmidt, P., Blessing, M., Rageot, M., Iovita, R., Pfleging, J., Nickel, K. G.; Righetti, L. & Tennie, C. (2019). Birch tar extraction does not prove Neanderthal behavioral complexity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

• Motes-Rodrigo, A., Majlesi, P., Pickering, T. R., Laska, M., Axelsen, H., Minchin, T. C., Tennie, C., & Hernandez-Aguilar, R. A. (2019). Chimpanzee extractive foraging with excavating tools: Experimental modeling of the origins of human technology. PloS ONE, 14(5), e0215644.

• Bandini, E. and Tennie C. (2019). Individual acquisition of “stick pounding” behavior by naïve chimpanzees. American Journal of Primatology: e22987.

• Tennie, C.; Braun, D. R.; Premo, L. S. & McPherron, S. P. (2016). The Island Test for Cumulative Culture in Paleolithic Cultures. The Nature of Culture. Series: Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology. Eds.: M.N. Haidle, N.J. Conard, & M. Bolus. Springer, Netherlands, pp. 121-133.