You are currently viewing the summary.
View Full TextLog in to view the full text
AAAS login provides access to Science for AAAS members, and access to other journals in the Science family to users who have purchased individual subscriptions.
More options
Download and print this article for your personal scholarly, research, and educational use.
Buy a single issue of Science for just $15 USD.
Summary
Most researchers have believed that Homo erectus lacked the social and linguistic skills to pilot the deep, fast-moving waters that separate most Asian and Australian faunas, but in this week's issue of Nature, an international team presents new dates for stone tools from the Indonesian island of Flores that confirm H. erectus's presence there 800,000 years ago. Although most researchers accept the new dates for the artifacts, questions linger about whether they are really tools, and researchers are sharply divided over the team's proposition that H. erectus used rafts and may have had language. But if H. erectus did indeed arrive on Flores by boat, it would mean that their cognitive abilities would be up for reappraisal and that the species was more adaptable than is commonly believed.
