A team of archeologists has discovered that Neanderthals produced a type of specialized tool for the first time ever. It is still used in some cultures today. The researchers said to have found the strongest evidence suggesting modern day humans may have learnt a trick or two from their extinct cousins.

According to them, evolution of Neanderthals dates back to 200,000 years ago. It was the same time when our species appeared for the first time in Africa. About 44,000 years ago, modern humans had made it to Europe. Moreover, the two species lived side-by-side for about 5000 years.

Europe's Neanderthals started to make sophisticated tools during that time. The tools were comparable to those produced by our species. Shannon McPherron at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, said that modern humans must have had an influence on them.

McPherron and Marie Soressi at Leiden University in the Netherlands, with colleagues, excavated two sites in south-west France that are 45,000 and 51,000 years old.

McPherron said that bone tools yet found are the earliest of their type. However, it is known that similar tools were used by humans later. The same tools might have been invented by our species later on. But also, the skill could have been learnt to make them by copying Neanderthals.