Crocs take a bite out of claims of ancient stone-tool use

Scars left on bones could have come from hungry reptiles instead of Stone Age butchery, researchers say

horse leg bone and croc tooth

BIG BITE  Crocodiles in East Africa around 2.5 million years ago had teeth (one shown at right) capable of gouging chunks out of prey animals’ bones. A horse’s leg bone (left), also dating to 2.5 million years ago from East Africa, bears marks more like those of croc bites than butchery with stone tools, as previously suspected, a new study finds.  

Y. Sahle et al/PNAS 2017

Recent reports of African and North American animal fossils bearing stone-tool marks from being butchered a remarkably long time ago may be a crock.