The debate overexactly when humans first come in the Americasmight have been hijacked by some rather handycapuchin rapscallion , allot to a unexampled analytic thinking of Stone Age tools in Brazil . After examining the Pleistocene era artifacts , the study author concluded that they were believably fashioned by the fuzzy little primates , casting major doubtfulness over what was once moot firm evidence for early human occupation of the region .

researcher take stock image of previous finds from the archaeological site of Pedra Furada in the Brazilian state of Piauí , where a cache of Harlan Stone cock date to between 32,000 and 50,000 years ago has been unearthed . Due to their antiquity , these lithic utensils are seen as “ the most robust and coherent grounds sustaining an early human universe … of the South American continent , ” the authors write .

Throwing a wrench in the work , though , they also mention that New World capuchin scallywag are deucedly good at produce “ homo - sounding lithic deposits . ” In an electronic mail to IFLScience , study author Agustín Agnolín from Argentina ’s National Scientific and Technical Research Council ( CONICET ) explain that capuchin tools “ generally consist of pebbles and large flat rocks which are used as hammers and anvils respectively , and with which they crack nuts . ”

“ This is n’t very unlike to what many human groups did . Some of the rock burst during this process could easily buy the farm for stone tools found in any human site . ”

Such monkey apery has led to some heated disagreements between archaeologists over who – or what – created the stone deposits at Pedra Furada . To try and go under the debate , Agnolín and his fellow worker re - interpreted some of the artefact and carefully compared them to other tools made by both humans and capuchin .

In doing so , they give away that the artifacts display only “ unifacial flaking , ” with no grounds of “ bifacially thinned artefact and oddball . ” Such feature , they say , are “ uncommon in most human sites , but abundant in capuchin - scamp sites . ”

Considering the sound structure of the relics , Agnolín say “ it ’s improbable they were made by human beings , because the lithic technology at the site is indistinguishable from that tie in with monkeys . ”

“ On top of that , there is no other evidence that might point the presence of homo , such as fireside , animal bone displaying polarity of wasting disease , symbolical object like stone art or ornamentation , or human remains . ”

In their write - up , the authors also mention that the ancient technology present at Pedra Furada come out not to have alter at all over thousands of years , which is very unusual for sites reside by homo . After all , it ’s our ingenuity that separates us from … well , monkeys .

“ In sum , based on positive and minus grounds we are convinced that the other archeological situation from Brazil may not be human - educe but may belong to capuchin monkey , ” pen the researchers .

In terms of what all this way ,   Agnolín says that “ our work strongly questions the nature of the web site and forbid its continued use as evidence for the very former settlement of South America . ”

“ Obviously , this does n’t mean that ouroccupation of Americawas recent or dominate out the possibleness of humans on the continent more than 20,000 geezerhood ago , but it does damp one of the strongest piece of grounds for a very former settlement of the region . ”

The written report has been published in the journalThe Holocene .