TÜBINGEN, GERMANY—Five teeth and a partial leg bone from saber-toothed cats have been found at Germany’s Schöningen mine, in the same layer where excavations have also uncovered eight wooden spears with sharpened points and the remains of horses. Paleontologist Jordi Serangeli of the University of Tübingen thinks that between 320,000 and 300,000 years ago, hominids may have used the spears to defend themselves against the big, fast cats, in addition to using them to hunt horses. Although, “if one wanted to drive off a big carnivore, it would have been much easier to bounce a rock off its head,” John Shea of Stony Brook University commented in Science News. Pits, scrapes, and other marks on the leg bone of an adult male saber-toothed cat suggest that it may have been used as a hammer for crafting stone tools. To read about Paleolithic art discovered in Germany, go to "A New Life for Lion Man."
