New Research Pushes Back Occupation of Flores

It is now thought that the inhabitants of the island of Flores, from whence come the hominid euphemistically known as "the hobbit," may have been on the island as early as one million years ago. NewsDaily picks up the Reuters story:

In their paper, the researchers said they found 45 stone tools in Wolo Sege in the Soa basin in Flores.

Led by Adam Brumm at the Center of Archaeological Science in the University of Wollongong in New South Wales, Australia, the researchers used new dating methods and found that the stone tools were about a million years old.

"It is now clear, however, in light of the evidence from Wolo Sege, that hominins were present on Flores (a million years ago). This suggests that the non-selective, mass death of Stegondon sondaari and giant tortoise ... could represent a localized or regional extinction," they wrote in their paper.

A lot of evolution can happen in a million years.