Fishing boat lands World's oldest underwater human bone

July 26, 2009

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Fishermen rinse off the mussels they caught. A fishing boat trawling for mussels off the Dutch coast has instead landed a 40,000 year-old human bone, German scientists said after examining the find.

A fishing boat trawling for mussels off the Dutch coast has instead landed a 40,000 year-old human bone, German scientists said on Sunday after examining the find.

Anthropologists from the University of Leipzig in eastern Germany confirmed that the forehead bone was "at least 40,000 years old and therefore the oldest ever found underwater," according to August's edition of GEO magazine.

The fishermen also found the caveman's "tool kit", consisting of a hand-axe and flints.

However, despite the fact the bone was found under the sea, the man dwelt on land and primarily ate meat, the scientists said.

When he lived, the Netherlands and Britain were one land mass.

(c) 2009 AFP

• Hungry4info2 - Jul 27, 2009
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  "However, despite the fact the bone was found under the sea, the man dwelt on land"
  
  LMAO "Oh!" hahaha.
  See, I for one figured he just wandered around the sea floor his whole life. Hahaha.
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• nkalanaga - Jul 27, 2009
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  Don't laugh. I'm sure there are a few readers who'd believe just that! And, probably more who wonder how the bone and the tool kit stayed together while ending up on the sea floor.
  
  For those who don't know "the rest of the story", the oceans were considerably lower during the Ice Age, and the English Channel was dry land.
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