![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/A-chimp-named-Toti-observes-the-crystal-credit-Garcia-Ruiz-et-al.-2026-according-to-CC-4.0.-license-.jpeg\")
A chimp named Toti observes the crystal \u2013 credit, Garc\u00eda-Ruiz et al., 2026, according to CC 4.0. license<\/p>\n A chimp named Toti observes the crystal \u2013 credit, Garc\u00eda-Ruiz et al., 2026, according to CC 4.0. license<\/p>\n
Scientists have found that chimpanzees are attracted to crystals, seem to value them, want to keep them where they sleep, and can easily distinguish any stone that shines or glitters from others that don\u2019t.<\/p>\n
The researchers were hoping to understand whether our own species\u2019 long documented appreciation (bordering on obsession) with crystals, gems, and precious metals, extends even further back down our evolutionary timeline.<\/p>\n
The findings must be taken with several grains of sodium chloride crystal, but may open up a fascinating field of study into the origins of value.<\/p>\n
Maybe you\u2019ve experienced this: news comes out about a large diamond or ruby selling at auction for the same price as a house, and you or a friend have a brief moment of wondering, \u201cwhy?\u201d<\/p>\n
Similarly, maybe you subscribe, or at least sympathize, with Warren Buffet\u2019s long-held views on gold\u2014namely that it\u2019s nothing but a shiny rock\u2014\u201da barbarous relic,\u201d as the Oracle of Omaha famously said.<\/p>\n
But even so, there\u2019s something about the appeal of shiny rocks that clearly transcends logic, and that\u2019s been true not only for the 5,500 year history of gold\u2019s use as money, but for likely our entire existence.<\/p>\n
Crystals have repeatedly been found at archaeological sites alongside Homo remains. Evidence shows hominins have been collecting these stones for as long as 780,000 years. Yet, we know that our ancestors did not use them as weapons, tools, or even jewelry. So why did they collect them at all?<\/p>\n
Something about these stones made them desirable, even when they weren\u2019t used for anything, and hoping to understand why, Spanish scientists conducted an experiment<\/a> with 9 encultured chimps at a primate rescue center.<\/p>\n Encultured means that the animals have had extensive contact with humans, and is the first reason to hold one\u2019s horses regarding scientific conclusions, but the results of the experiment nevertheless left the scientists \u201camazed.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe were pleasantly surprised by how strong and seemingly natural the chimpanzees\u2019 attraction to crystals was,\u201d said<\/a> lead author Juan Manuel Garc\u00eda-Ruiz, a professor in San Sebastian in crystallography. \u201cThis suggests that sensitivity to such objects may have deep evolutionary roots.\u201d<\/p>\n Modern humans diverged from chimps between 6 and 7 million years ago, so we share substantial genetic and behavioral similarities. To find out if fascination with crystals is one of them, the researchers provided two groups of chimpanzees (Manuela, Guillermo, Yvan, Yaki, and Toti in group one and Gombe, Lul\u00fa, Pascual, and Sandy in group two) with access to crystals.<\/p>\n In the first experiment, a large quartz crystal\u2014called the monolith\u2014was placed on a platform, along with a normal rock of similar size. While initially both objects caught the chimps\u2019 attention, soon the crystal was preferred and the rock disregarded. Once they had removed it from the platform, all chimps inspected the crystal, rotating and tilting it so they could view it from specific angles. Yvan then picked up the crystal and decisively carried it to their hay-lined sleeping huts.<\/p>\n A second experiment showed that the chimps could identify and select smaller quartz crystals\u2014similar in size to those found in hominin site excavations\u2014from a pile of 20 rounded pebbles within seconds.<\/p>\n When pyrite (Fool\u2019s Gold) and calcite crystals, which have different shapes than quartz crystals, were added to the pile, chimps still were able to pick out crystal-type stones.<\/p>\n \u201cThe chimpanzees began to study the crystals\u2019 transparency with extreme curiosity, holding them up to eye level and looking through them,\u201d Garc\u00eda-Ruiz said. The animals then immediately, like the monolith experiment, took them back to their dormitories.<\/p>\n Chimps repeatedly examined the crystals for hours. Sandy, for example, carried pebbles and crystals in her mouth to a wooden platform where she separated them.<\/p>\n \u201cShe separated the 3 crystal types, which themselves differed in transparency, symmetry, and luster, from all the pebbles. This ability to recognize crystals despite their differences amazed us,\u201d Garc\u00eda-Ruiz said.<\/p>\n The authors pointed out that chimps don\u2019t usually use their mouths to carry objects, so this could mean they were hiding them, a behavior consistent with treating the crystals as valuable, the team pointed out. It could, however, also mean they were testing to see if they were edible, but maybe not.<\/p>\n A MYSTERIOUS CRYSTAL: Huge Black Diamond Sold for $4.3 Million\u2013and No One Knows Where it Came From or How it Was Formed<\/a><\/p>\n Another behavior by the chimps demonstrated the potential that they understood a value proposition in the crystals: that in order to get them back, the researchers had to barter for them, with substantially more pounds of food then the crystal. If indeed they were testing to see if it were edible, the amount of food they demanded in return seems strange.<\/p>\n Philosophically, the food trade experiment mirrors the classical value paradox of gems and precious metals.<\/p>\n One can\u2019t eat a gemstone or gold coin, yet they cost far more than bread. Starving to death, one would trade every gemstone on Earth for a loaf of bread, so why do we assign them so much value? Based on how many bananas and how much yogurt Garc\u00eda-Ruiz and his team had to offer, it could be that chimpanzees fall into that same paradox.<\/p>\n An interesting hypothesis as to why the chimps found the crystals interesting is their shape.<\/p>\n SHINY ROCKS TO CATCTH THE EYE: \u2018Alien\u2019 Minerals Never Found on Earth Before Reveal Their Traumatic Origin Story<\/a><\/p>\n Crystals are the only natural polyhedral objects, meaning the only natural solids with many flat surfaces. When early humans tried to make sense of their environment, their cognitive processes might have been drawn to patterns that were unlike what they knew.<\/p>\n The clouds, trees, mountains, animals, and rivers of the natural world surrounding our ancestors were defined by curvature and ramification, so few items had straight lines and flat surfaces.<\/p>\n The combined observations from the experiments identified that both the transparency and the shape as alluring properties to the chimps. It might have been the same qualities attracting early humans to these rocks.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/A-chimp-named-Yvan-spent-more-than-15-minutes-inspecting-a-small-crystal-credit-Garcia-Ruiz-et-al.-2.jpeg\")
A chimp named Yvan spent more than 15 minutes inspecting a small crystal \u2013 credit Garc\u00eda-Ruiz et al., 2026, according to CC 4.0. license<\/p>\n