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is Scientific American 60 Second Science. I'm Suzanne Bard. Around a hundred thousand years ago in what is now Italy, our Neanderthal cousins

waded out into the shallow coastal waters of the Mediterranean Sea in search of clams.

They grabbed the mollusks from the sea floor and perhaps even

dived for them in deeper water and they also simply collected clams from the beach.

But the creatures weren't just food. In a recent study, University of Colorado Boulder

archaeologist Paola Vila in her team report that Neanderthals modified the

clam's hard shells into tools for cutting and scraping.

The clam-derived implements were found inside the Grota de Mosherini, a coastal cave that was first

rediscovered around 85 years ago.

By examining wear and tear on the shells,

the researchers determined that about 75% of the tool source material

had been found dead on the beach.

These shells had been worn down from being battered by waves and sand,

but the remaining shells were smooth and shiny,

indicating that the clams were still alive on the sea floor when they

were gathered.

These shells were also thicker and therefore might have made more durable tools.

So even though gathering clams underwater took more work than picking them up on the beach,

the effort may have been worth it. Also found in the Grota de Mosherini were pumice stones from volcanic eruptions

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