PARIS — Were the early humans roaming east Asia more than half a million years ago clever enough to build sea-faring watercraft and curious enough to cross a vast expanse of open sea? The find pushes back the arrival of the first homo species on the island chain tenfold to 700,000 years ago, the researchers reported in the journal Nature. Analysis of the bones from the extinct species—Rhinoceros philippinensis—left no doubt “that it showed ridges left by tools,” he told Agence France-Presse (AFP). “This evidence pushes back the proven period of colonialization of the Philippines by hundreds of thousands of years,” the authors concluded. With no direct trace of the humans who butchered the animals, researchers could only speculate on who they were and how they got there.

Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer May 03, 2018 23:26 UTC