reported worldwide so far this year, half of them fatal.

, but many were small fragments so it was hard to determine their age.Technological advancements in the past decade have now made it possible to date the oldest of the tools to about 20,000 years ago. Scientists found that the bones came from blue whales, fin whales, sperm whales and other species.

“Humans and whales have clearly been encountering one another for a long time,” said Vicki Szabo with Western Carolina University, who studies the history of whaling and was not involved with the latest research.Scientists think that ancient humans were crafting whale bone instruments in places including the Arctic and South Pacific. There’s been solid evidence of whale bone tools dating back to about 5,000 years ago, but the new research published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications pushes the timeline back.Ancient humans weren’t necessarily hunting whales, said study author Jean-Marc Petillon with the French National Centre for Scientific Research. More likely, they were scavenging the bodies of beached whales and fashioning their dense, heavy bones into tools to hunt reindeer or bison.

The tools indicate that ancient people in the area took advantage of resources near the sea for survival. They likely also collected seashells and fished. Finding such evidence has been difficult as rising sea levels disrupt coastlines across the globe, scientists said.“It’s one more contribution to the importance of coastal environments for human groups, even in this long past,” said Petillon.

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NEW YORK (AP) — Leon Thomas is such a believer of speaking dreams into existence that the artist-producer has been patiently awaiting — yet expecting — his current moment of musical appreciation.Research doesn’t show that women need more sleep — but women do get slightly more sleep on average than men, Atwood said.

It starts at a young age. Though they have the same sleep needs, teenage girls seem to get less sleep than teenage boys, Pelayo said. Additionally, teenage girls tend to complain of insomnia more frequently.When women become first-time mothers, they often care for newborns throughout the night more frequently, which means less sleep, said Allison Harvey, a clinical psychologist and professor who studies sleep at UC Berkeley.

Hormones may also impact women’s sleep quantity and quality during pregnancy and menopause.“With menopause in particular, women can develop deterioration in their sleep with an increased number and duration of nighttime awakenings,” said Dr. Mithri Junna, a Mayo Clinic neurologist who specializes in sleep.