Scientists date the oldest known tools made from whale bones to 20,000 years ago
A projectile made from gray whale bone, dating back to about 18,000 years ago, in Abbaye d'Arthous, France, in March 2021. (Alexandre Lefebvre via AP)
NEW YORK — Scientists have pinpointed the oldest known evidence of humans making tools from whale bone.
The bones, fashioned into narrow projectiles for hunting, had been uncovered in excavations dating back over a century in the Bay of Biscay near Spain and France. Scientists figured the tools were quite ancient, but many were small fragments so it was hard to determine their age.
Technological advancements in the past decade have now made it possible to date the oldest of the tools to about 20,000 years ago. Scientists found that the bones came from blue whales, fin whales, sperm whales and other species.
'Humans and whales have clearly been encountering one another for a long time,' said Vicki Szabo with Western Carolina University, who studies the history of whaling and was not involved with the latest research.
Scientists think that ancient humans were crafting whale bone instruments in places including the Arctic and South Pacific. There's been solid evidence of whale bone tools dating back to about 5,000 years ago, but the new research published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications pushes the timeline back.
Ancient humans weren't necessarily hunting whales, said study author Jean-Marc Petillon with the French National Centre for Scientific Research. More likely, they were scavenging the bodies of beached whales and fashioning their dense, heavy bones into tools to hunt reindeer or bison.
The tools indicate that ancient people in the area took advantage of resources near the sea for survival. They likely also collected seashells and fished. Finding such evidence has been difficult as rising sea levels disrupt coastlines across the globe, scientists said.
'It's one more contribution to the importance of coastal environments for human groups, even in this long past,' said Petillon.
___
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Adithi Ramakrishnan, The Associated Press
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CTV News
a day ago
- CTV News
More microplastics in glass bottles than plastic: study
Paris, France -- Drinks including water, soda, beer and wine sold in glass bottles contain more microplastics than those in plastic bottles, according to a surprising study released by France's food safety agency Friday. Researchers have detected the tiny, mostly invisible pieces of plastic throughout the world, from in the air we breathe to the food we eat, as well as riddled throughout human bodies. There is still no direct evidence that this preponderance of plastic is harmful to human health, but a burgeoning field of research is aiming to measure its spread. Guillaume Duflos, research director at French food safety agency ANSES, told AFP the team sought to 'investigate the quantity of microplastics in different types of drinks sold in France and examine the impact different containers can have'. The researchers found an average of around 100 microplastic particles per litre in glass bottles of soft drinks, lemonade, iced tea and beer. That was five to 50 times higher than the rate detected in plastic bottles or metal cans. 'We expected the opposite result,' PhD student Iseline Chaib, who conducted the research, told AFP. 'We then noticed that in the glass, the particles emerging from the samples were the same shape, colour and polymer composition -- so therefore the same plastic -- as the paint on the outside of the caps that seal the glass bottles,' she said. The paint on the caps also had 'tiny scratches, invisible to the naked eye, probably due to friction between the caps when there were stored,' the agency said in a statement. This could then 'release particles onto the surface of the caps', it added. Wine fine For water, both flat and sparkling, the amount of microplastic was relatively low in all cases, ranging from 4.5 particles per litre in glass bottles to 1.6 particles in plastic. Wine also contained few microplastics -- even glass bottles with caps. Duflos said the reason for this discrepancy 'remains to be explained'. Soft drinks however contained around 30 microplastics per litre, lemonade 40 and beer around 60. Because there is no reference level for a potentially toxic amount of microplastics, it was not possible to say whether these figures represent a health risk, ANSES said. But drink manufacturers could easily reduce the amount of microplastics shed by bottle caps, it added. The agency tested a cleaning method involving blowing the caps with air, then rinsing them with water and alcohol, which reduced contamination by 60 percent. The study released by ANSES was published online in the Journal of Food Composition and Analysis last month. By Rébecca Frasquet, AFP
CTV News
a day ago
- CTV News
Big-name porn sites back online in France after age check row
The Pornhub website is shown on a computer screen in Toronto on Wednesday, Dec. 16, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS PARIS, France -- Major adult websites Pornhub, YouPorn and RedTube were back online in France Friday after a court suspended a decision requiring pornographic platforms based in the EU to verify users' ages. France has gradually introduced requirements this year for all adult websites to have users confirm their age with details such as a credit card or ID document. The aim is to prevent minors from accessing pornography. But the Paris administrative tribunal on Monday suspended a government decree while investigating whether it was compatible with EU legislation. The French government has shared its intention to appeal to the Council of State, the country's highest administrative court. The three platforms' owner, Aylo, said the decree's suspension was an 'opportunity to reconsider more efficient approaches' to age verification. Aylo, based in Cyprus, had made its websites unavailable in France in early June as a protest against the French decree. Failure to comply could have lead to sanctions including fines or the blocking of the websites. Aylo argued that this was an ineffective mechanism that exposed people's data to bad actors, hacks or leaks. 'Requiring you to repeatedly provide sensitive personal information creates an unacceptable security risk that we refuse to impose on our users,' the company said in a message displayed on the sites' homepages earlier this month. About 40 percent of children in France access to porn sites every month, according to a 2024 study by France's Arcom audiovisual watchdog. In a bid to preserve privacy, the government decree also required operators to offer a third-party 'double-blind' option that would prevent the platforms from seeing users' identifying information. Aylo, which reports seven million visitors in France daily across its various platforms, has called instead for governments to require makers of operating systems such as Apple, Microsoft and Google to verify users' ages at the level of individual devices. The platform also argues that the French law 'diverts users to thousands of sites that deliberately circumvent regulations' and fails to moderate videos for issues such as the age and consent of performers. Other countries such as the United Kingdom and Germany also enforce age-related access restrictions to adult websites.
CTV News
a day ago
- CTV News
Age verification: Youporn and Pornhub reactivated in France
The Pornhub website is shown on a computer screen in Toronto on Wednesday, Dec. 16, 2020. (THE CANADIAN PRESS) The websites Youporn, Pornhub, and Redtube have been reactivated in France by their owner following the suspension by French courts of the decree requiring pornography platforms located in the European Union to verify the age of their users, AFP reported on Friday. The decision by the Paris Administrative Court, which on Monday suspended the decree, published in February following a law passed in 2024 pending a review of its compatibility with European law, 'provides an opportunity to reconsider more effective approaches,' according to a message on the homepage of the three sites, which are owned by the company Aylo. The French government has announced its intention to appeal to the Council of State, France's highest administrative court. Hosted in Cyprus, Aylo made its sites inaccessible in early June to protest against the law, which requires adult site publishers to implement an identification system preventing minors from accessing them, under penalty of sanctions from the French digital and audiovisual regulator, Arcom, which could include blocking the sites. 'By suspending access to our site in France, we are taking a stand: we refuse to compromise your privacy with measures that, paradoxically, fail to effectively protect minors,' Aylo said in a message on the homepage of the three sites. According to a study conducted in the first half of 2024 by Arcom, nearly 40 per cent of children in France access pornographic sites every month. In concrete terms, the decree suspended on Monday requires these platforms to demand the submission of a photo or identity document, for example, by offering at least one method that respects the principle of double anonymity, which allows users to prove they are of legal age without revealing their identity. Aylo, which claims seven million daily visitors in France across its various platforms, advocates age verification at the device and operating system level. Other countries, such as the United Kingdom and Germany, also impose age-related restrictions on access to adult websites. This report by AFP was first published in French on June 20, 2025.
