![\"Blue](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/SEI_253201771-0bc0.jpg\")
\n\t\tThe human skull pieces were among 6,000 fossils dredged up from the Madura Strait, Indonesia (Picture: Getty Images)<\/p>\n
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\n\t\tThe human skull pieces were among 6,000 fossils dredged up from the Madura Strait, Indonesia (Picture: Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Fragments of a human skull may reveal the secrets of an ancient land, ruled by venomous Komodo dragons. <\/p>\n
The 140-000-year-old bone fragments were discovered buried in a now-submerged land in Indonesia.<\/p>\n
They were found by accident among thousands of animal fossils when tonnes of sand and stones were dredged up off the seafloor of the Madura Strait, a stretch of sea between Java and Madura island.<\/p>\n
Marks found on the fossils suggest that the Homo erectus might have used a hunting strategy copied from its more modern human relatives, signalling a further overlap and interaction between the two species.<\/p>\n
\t\t![\"14744379](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/SEI_252828895-8dec.jpg\")
\n\t\tThe early human skull pieces were found together with thousands of animal fossils (Picture: Ars.els-cdn.com)<\/p>\n
The skull was buried 140,000 years ago, and it could be the first evidence of the prehistoric landmass known as Sundaland, Live Science<\/a> reports.<\/p>\n The bombshell discovery, published last week in <\/a>the Quaternary Environments and Human journal<\/a>, reveals how a previously unknown Homo erectus population may have interacted with more humans across the strip of land, which connected the islands.<\/p>\n The fossil markings suggest that the Homo erectus in the area were targeting a prehistoric, cow-like animal in a way the species isn\u2019t usually known for, suggesting they were copying humans from the mainland.<\/p>\n \t\t The findings suggest that early humans lived side-by-side with the Komodo dragons, which have a poisonous bite and are capable of killing large mammals. <\/p>\n Harold Berghuis, the lead author of the study at the University of Leiden, Netherlands, told Live Science: \u2018The Madura Strait hominins may have developed this hunting strategy independently. <\/p>\n \u2018But the other possibility is that we are looking at a kind of cultural exchange.\u2019 <\/p>\n \t\t After sifting through the debris, the researchers found more than 6,000 animal fossils \u2013 the first time fossils have been found from the submerged Sundaland. <\/p>\n The area used to look very different when human ancestors walked and hunted in the area during the last Ice Age.<\/p>\n Sundaland was the home to elephants, the elephant-like extinct Stegodon and water buffalo, while its rivers were teeming with fish, turtles, river sharks and hippos, the fossils show.<\/p>\n \t\t The researchers identified 36 different species among the over 6,000 fossils, including Komodo dragons, which could have been \u2018the most important predators\u2019 in Sundaland, Berghuis said. <\/p>\n But the pre-historic human remains could have been lost forever when a massive construction project started in the strait to create an artificial island. <\/p>\n Diggers pulled up around 177 million cubic feet of sand and sandstones near Surabaya between 2014 and 2015, which was then used the create the island. <\/p>\n Berghuis then spent weeks on his hands and knees searching for any human-linked fossils. He finally hit the jackpot on his last day at the site. <\/p>\n \t\t He said: \u2018It was already getting dark and I sat down to enjoy [the] sunset. <\/p>\n \u2018And then, right beside me, lay this fossil that reminded me so much of the only Dutch Neanderthal. This is a well-known fossil in my country, dredged from the North Sea.\u2019 <\/p>\n The human predecessor was the first to develop a humanlike body and leave the African continent for Asia and Europe during its 2 million-year existence. <\/p>\n As its name suggests, Homo erectus walked upright, although the teeth were larger and the brain smaller than in modern humans. <\/p>\n Homo erectus is thought to be the first human species to have used fire around 1 million years ago. <\/p>\n Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk<\/a>.<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n For more stories like this, <\/strong>check our news page<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n Arrow Arrow![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/SEI_252828884-9315-e1748260050982.jpg\")
\n\t\tA reconstruction of a Homo erectus (Picture: Sygma\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n![\"14744379](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/SEI_252828757-3f7b.jpg\")
\n\t\tResearchers had the rare opportunity to sift through the sandy, fossil-rich soil dredged up from the sea (Picture: Ars.els-cdn.com)<\/p>\n![\"Madura](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/SEI_253203731-c6c3.jpg\")
\n\t\tThe Madura Strait connecting the islands of Java and Madura (Picture: Metro)<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/SEI_252828891-6db6.jpg\")
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\n\t\tDetails of the fossilised skull fragment, which was found at the eleventh hour before the study concluded (Picture: Ars.els-cdn.com)<\/p>\n
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