Fossil marks suggest hominids butchered one another around 1.45 million years ago

Whether stone-tool marks on a leg bone are a sign of ancient cannibalism is up for debate

A photo of a hominid leg fossil on a black background with a magnified view of it on the right shows a variety of scratches and gouges.

A roughly 1.45-million-year-old hominid leg fossil bears what a new study identifies as stone-tool incisions, shown in a magnified view (right). Researchers suspect that this evidence points to hominids butchering one another, but that conclusion is controversial.

Jennifer Clark

A 1.45-million-year-old