Humans seem to have reached Madagascar many centuries earlier than previously thought.

Dominique Gommery at the French National Centre for Scientific Research in Paris and his colleagues discovered cut marks on bones from pygmy hippopotamuses found in the Anjohibe Cave in the north-west of the island. Although the researchers could not directly date the bones, other samples from the layer in which they were uncovered dated to around 4,000 years ago.

The oldest cut marks known on the island before this were found on bones from the other end of the island that were estimated to be about 1,500 years younger. The Anjohibe bones suggest an earlier human presence and interaction with local fauna.

C.R. Palevol 10, 271–278 (2011)