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The first North American hunters used spear-throwers to hurl their weapons over longer distances and bring down large prey, according to a new study.

Anthropologists have studied tiny fractures in the stone spear points used by the Paleo-Indian hunters that began appearing in North America between 13,000 and 11,000 years ago.

He found they contained distinctive chips and fractures that match those created in stone tools that have been thrown using a spear-thrower or atlatl.

Fractures in fluted stone points made by Paleo-Indian cultures, like those above, have helped to reveal that these prehistoric hunters used tools known as atlatl to fling their spears further and harder than believed

These are essentially levers that are attached to the end of the spear or dart, allowing it to be thrown far faster and further than if thrown by hand like a javelin.

The technology is widely thought to be a predecessor of the bow and arrow that later became common among the Native cultures in North America.

The new study, conducted by Professor Karl Hutchings, an anthropologist at Thompson Rivers University in Canada, suggests that some of the earliest prehistoric humans to arrive in North America, known as the Clovis people, brought this technology with them.

It also helps to support theories that these early hunters were able to kill large prey like mammoths and other megafauna..

Professor Hutchings said that it was unlikely a handthrown spear with a stone point, or flute point as they are also known, alone would be enough to bring down such large animals, but a spear-thrower could give hunters the edge they needed.

This, he said, would have allowed these cultures to spread far more efficiently around the continent and inhabit a wide range of landscapes.

He said: 'Close-range weapons such as the javelin or spear are well-suited to terrain-based hunting strategies.

'With their requirement to drive game into trapping areas and knick points, terrain-based strategies tether big game hunters to specific locations and features, and generally require a considerable number of participants.

'Such features and strategies should enhance greatly the success rates of those close-range weapons.

'In contrast, in addition to providing Paleoindian hunters increased lethality and safety, the portability and range of the spear-thrower may have meant that Paleoindian hunters were not tethered to trapping areas and knick points, thereby facilitating greater mobility and reduced hunting-group sizes.'

The Clovis culture, named after the first stone tools discovered in Clovis, New Mexico, are thought to be the ancestors of most of the indigenous cultures in the Americas.

Professor Hutchings found microscopic fracture lines in the stone spear points (above) that matched those found in stone tipped spears that have been thrown with high velocity using a tool like an atlatl

Prehistoric petrogylphs, like the one above, etched into the rock in the Valley of Fire State Park, in Nevada, depict hunters using using atlatl to throw spears at animals and has been seen as evidence of the technology

However, there are several other prehistoric Paleo-Indian cultures that have been found to have been living in North America at around the end of the last ice age.

Some of the first evidence that these hunters used spear-throwers come from crude stone drawings in caves and on rocks that depict them bringing down large prey.

In some of the drawings, tools that look like atlatl can also be seen.

As these atlatls were probably made from wood, however, none have been found among the archaeological evidence as it is unlikely they would have survived.

In Europe, ancient spear throwers tended to be made from ivory or bone, while hunters in the Old World are known to have started using these at least 18,000 years ago.

Some have suggested that 11,000 year old 'bannerstones' found among Paleo-Indian remains could have functioned as weights on spear-throwers.

Spear-thrower hooks have also been found in the Warm Mineral Springs in Florida, but these date to around 9,000 years ago, sometime after the Paleo-Indian period.

With handheld spear,s hunters would have been forced to drive large prey like mammoths over cliffs to kill them, as is depicted in the illustration above, but atlatl tools could have let them kill them on open ground

These drawings in Upper Renegade Canyon of the Coso Mountains of California are thought to depict altatl technology that was developed by Paleo-Indian cultures that first inhabited North America 13,000 years ago

Professor Hutchings said his findings, published in the Journal of Archaeological Science, suggest that the Clovers people and other early Paleo-Indians were using this technology when they first appeared in North America.

He examined 55 stone artifacts from the Clovis culture, the Folsom culture, which dates to around 11,000 years ago, and other Paleo-Indians, for distinctive fracture points that occur when a stone point impacts after being thrown at high velocity.

He found that around half showed fractures that corresponded to being propelled from a spear-thrower.

He also found that subtle differences in some of the fractures suggested that these early North American hunters were experimenting with the way they tied the stone tips to the spear shafts.

He said: 'Dynamic loading rates, indicating high-velocity fractures, were indicated not only on Clovis and Folsom fluted points, but on other early point types including Plano, Midland, Western Pluvial Lakes Stemmed, Great Basin Stemmed, and Windust.

'Interestingly, this indicates that no one hafting technique was uniquely associated with spear-thrower technology during this period, and may further suggest that late-Pleistocene and early Holocene hunters were experimenting with hafting methods independent of delivery technologies.'

A guide in Seminole Canyon State Park, Texas, is seen above demonstrating how an atlatl would have worked