Azraq tools discovery shows how long-extinct ancestors fed themselves

Washington

THE watering hole would have glimmered in the scorching desert heat, drawing parched creatures from kilometres around. Wild horses and rhinoceros lapped at the pool's edge; migrating ducks paddled across its surface. Just out of sight, the hunters lay in wait.

Scientists can only imagine the butchery that happened next. But they're certain that it did occur. Some 250,000 years later, they've uncovered direct evidence: a scattering of stone tools still bearing traces of the creatures they were used to kill.