Our current understanding of human evolution and behavior may change completely, now that University of Montreal researchers have discovered a bone tool from the Neanderthal era which appears to have had multiple uses. The tool was found at an archaeological site in France.

Loc Doyon, a member of the university’s Department of Anthropology, participated in these digs and stated, “This is the first time a multi-purpose bone tool from this period has ever been discovered. It proves that Neanderthals were able to understand the mechanical properties of bone and knew how to use it to make tools, abilities usually attributed to our species, Homo sapiens.” Neanderthals lived during the Middle Palaeolithic time, about 250,000 years ago.

For as long as scientists have known about Neanderthals, they have always noted an evolutionary gap between Neanderthals and Homo sapiens, which is usually considered to have meant that Neanderthal’s were less intelligent. They are usually believed to have lacked the intelligence needed to do things like create tools and use them. That being said, the finding of this bone tool has made that notion questionable, causing much debate in the science world. “Our discovery is an additional indicator of bone work done by Neanderthals and helps put into question the linear view of the evolution of human behavior,” according to Doyon.