News Anthropology Humans used whale bones to make tools 20,000 years ago Beached whales provided Stone Age humans with bones to fashion into hunting weapons Researchers have identified the world’s oldest known whale bone tools. This spear point made of gray whale bone, from a French rock–shelter, dates to between 18,000 and 17,500 years old. Alexandre Lefebvre By Bruce Bower 2 hours ago Western Europeans crafted hunting weapons out of bones from whales stranded on the Atlantic shoreline between 20,000 and 14,000 years ago, researchers report May 27 in Nature Communications. Previously excavated finds at Stone Age cave and rock–shelter sites running from northwestern Spain to southwestern France, some located as far as about 300 kilometers inland, represent the oldest known examples of whale bone tools, say archaeologist Jean-Marc Pétillon of the University of Toulouse Jean Jaurès, France, and colleagues. Implements made of whale bones in other parts of the world, such as the South Pacific islands, date to no more than several thousand years old. Sign up for our newsletter We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.