Tag Archive for 'Tool'

The wooden tools found at the site of Gantangqing in China. Image credit: Liu et al., doi: 10.1126/science.adr8540.

300,000-Year-Old Wooden Tools Discovered in China

Jul 3, 2025 by News Staff

Archaeologists have unearthed an assemblage of 35 wooden tools — digging sticks and small, complete, hand-held pointed tools — at the Early...

Allokelping in southern resident killer whales (Orcinus orca ater). Image credit: Weiss et al., doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2025.04.021.

Killer Whales Fashion Tools from Kelp and Use Them for Grooming

Jun 30, 2025 by News Staff

In a paper published this month in the journal Current Biology, marine researchers report evidence of the widespread manufacture and use of grooming tools...

Taxonomic identification of the 173 worked (a) and unworked (b) bone objects: (1) blank, Tito Bustillo, sperm whale; (2) projectile point with massive base, Isturitz, blue whale; (3) projectile point, Brassempouy, fin whale; (4) possible foreshaft, Las Caldas, sperm whale; (5) projectile point with massive base, Ermittia, gray whale; (6) unidentified object, Saint-Michel, sperm whale; (7-10) unworked fragments of fin whale bone, Santa Catalina. Image credit: McGrath et al., doi: 10.1038/s41467-025-59486-8.

20,000-Year-Old Whale Bone Tools Found in Spain

May 27, 2025 by Enrico de Lazaro

Archaeologists have examined a large sample of worked bone objects from 26 Paleolithic cave and rockshelter sites in the Cantabrian region of Spain and...

The 1.5-million-year-old elephant humerus that has been knapped into a tool. Image credit: CSIC.

1.5-Million-Year-Old Bone Tool ‘Factory’ Discovered in Tanzania

Mar 5, 2025 by News Staff

Paleoanthropologists have documented a bone tool assemblage from a single horizon dated to 1.5 million years ago at Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania. These bone...

Captive Goffin’s cockatoos are able to innovate the flexible use of a toolset. Image credit: Osuna-Mascaró et al., doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2023.01.023.

Goffin’s Cockatoos Can Use and Transport Toolsets, Study Shows

Feb 14, 2023 by News Staff

In new research from the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, the majority of Goffin’s cockatoos (Cacatua goffiniana) spontaneously innovated toolset...

An ancient Toalean tool. Image credit: Perston et al., doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0251138.

Indonesian Hunter-Gatherers Were Making Tiny Point Tools Thousands of Years Ago

May 26, 2021 by News Staff

Archaeologists from Griffith University, the University of New England and the Balai Arkeologi Sulawesi Selatan have examined a collection of stone and...

When faced with the risk of drowning, black imported fire ants (Solenopsis richteri) used sand to siphon liquid food out of containers. Image credit: Zhou et al.

Black Imported Fire Ants Adapt Tool Use to Avoid Drowning

Oct 8, 2020 by News Staff

Black imported fire ants (Solenopsis richteri) have the remarkable ability to adapt its tool use: when provided with small containers of sugar water, they...

1.4-Million-Year-Old Handaxe Unearthed in Ethiopia

Jul 14, 2020 by Sergio Prostak

Paleoanthropologists working at the Konso research area in Ethiopia have found a 1.4-million-year-old large bone fragment shaped into handaxe-like form. The...