The Wallacean Islands were a popular place for our ancient ancestors. And as it turns out, our ancient ancestors reached some of these islands, which extend between Asia and Australia, remarkably early on.
According to a new paper published in Nature, a stone tool discovery suggests that the hominins appeared on the Wallacean island of Sulawesi around 1.04 million years ago or more, which is hundreds of thousands of years before traditionally thought. In fact, the age of these tools reveals that the established presence of ancient humans on Sulawesi is about as old, or older, than the established presence of ancient humans on the Wallacean island of Flores, which is famous for housing the later remains of the “hobbit human,” Homo floresiensis.
The discovery helps researchers retrace how hominins moved through the Wallacean Islands — locations where humans and other animals have evolved several surprising traits, like the small ...
