Since zoo chimps have learned how to crack open long bones with stones and
wild chimps can open bones and skulls with their teeth or a tree, I'll bet
it wouldn't be too hard for humans, though that may be assuming too much.
;-)

Google search terms: chimpanzees break long bones


Analysis of a bone assemblage made by chimpanzees at Gombe National Park,
Tanzania 
http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0047248400904226
"A high percentage (80%) of the long bones and ribs surviving consumption
were damaged, most commonly through crenulation [cleaving/shearing] and step
fracturing of bone ends."


Chimpanzee Material Culture: Implications for Human Evolution By William
Clement McGrew
http://books.google.com/books?id=gu7-DjJ5FbQC&pg=PA117&lpg=PA117&dq=chimpanz
ees+break+long+bones&source=web&ots=eTkv3QrorY&sig=HX8TrB8kcD08EuOf_susHmR1f
rM&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=4&ct=result
"Kitahara-Frisch et al. (1987) showed that chimpanzees in a zoo readily
learned to use stone hammers and anvils to smash open the long bones of
ungulates [hoofed animals]"


Taphonomic analysis of skeletal remains from chimpanzee hunts at Ngogo,
Kibale National Park, Uganda
Briana L. Pobiner et al
http://si-pddr.si.edu/dspace/bitstream/10088/2662/1/Pobiner2007.pdf

"Clavicles. The two clavicles in the Ngogo sample are from two different
adult red colobus monkeys. The cleaned clavicle exhibits chewing damage on
both ends (one end is crenulated and the other frayed); the other clavicle
that is not cleaned is undamaged.

Ribs. Ribs are generally nearly complete with damage concentrated on one or
both ends. Out of 59 ribs, only 19 (32%) do not exhibit any damage; 13 of
those 19 ribs are not cleaned. Sixteen rib ends are frayed, one is peeled,
one is step-fractured, and 21 are crenulated. Both caudal and cranial ends
are damaged. Fourteen specimens (24%) exhibit transverse incipient breaks.
This may result from the chimpanzees swinging the monkeys around and hitting
them on trees or other objects while killing them, especially younger prey
(J.C.M., pers. observ.; Fig. 8). Surprisingly, there are no tooth marks
found on any ribs; it might be expected that removing the relatively thin
overlying muscle bodies from the rib cage would have caused tooth marks."


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Paleolithic Eating Support List
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Robert Kesterson
> Sent: Tuesday, June 17, 2008 9:02 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Osteoclast was Dystocia
> 
> On Tue, 17 Jun 2008 07:26:47 -0500, william <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> >
> > Robert Kesterson wrote:
> >>
> >> Nah.  Paleo man would have cracked the bones open and sucked the
> marrow
> >> out.  :)
> >>
> > So how? I don't know how to crack bones open. Butchers use a saw, not
> > paleo. I can imagine it with my six pound hammer and a cold chisel,
> but
> > seems too difficult.
> >
> > Anyone ever done it with stone tools?
> 
> I've not done it personally, but I have no doubt I could if I wanted
> to.
> Animals use stones to crack nuts open (chimps do it, and I've seen
> squirrels do it), so man using stones to crack bones isn't much of a
> stretch.  A google search on "paleolithic", "crack", "bones", and
> "marrow"
> returns several articles which mention the practice.
> 
> --
>    Robert Kesterson
>    [log in to unmask]