Around 35,000 years ago, the remote islands of the Philippines were colonized by a group of expert sailors, hunters, and fishermen, who were culturally and economically connected to other populations thousands of miles away. Based on archaeological discoveries on the island of Mindoro , a team of researchers has reconstructed aspects of these ancient seafarers’ lives, revealing that they had developed a number of ingenious strategies that helped them survive and flourish.

For example, spines belonging to the highly toxic porcupine fish - or diodontidae - were repeatedly found within some of these caves, indicating that the island’s early inhabitants probably extracted the toxin for use as a hunting weapon while consuming the edible parts of the fish. Meanwhile, obsidian flakes discove

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