The European discovery of specialized bone tools, may suggest modern man’s predecessors were more advanced that previously thought. The bone tools were apparently made by Neanderthals, thousands of years before modern humans are believed to have arrived to share the know-how. A paper published Monday by the “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences” in Paris, focuses on the discovery in France of four fragments of bone, believed to be used to make animal hides tougher and more water-resistant. The oldest of the tools appears to be more than 50,000 years old. The discovery could mean that Neanderthals independently made specialized tools rather than learning the technique from modern humans, or that modern humans entered Europe earlier than thought.