Homo erectus, not humans, may have invented the barbed bone point

An 800,000-year-old tool may be the oldest known of its kind

ancient bone tool

An ancient bone tool, made from a piece of a large animal’s rib, features three curved barbs and a carved tip. The implement was made more than 800,000 years ago, probably by Homo erectus.

M. Pante et al/Journal of Human Evolution 2020

A type of bone tool generally thought to have been invented by Stone Age humans got its start among hominids that lived hundreds of thousands of years before Homo sapiens evolved, a new study concludes.