The tools appeared to be similar to those made at other sites in different parts of the world by an earlier species of human called Homo erectus. However, the crucial difference between H erectus tools and those at Liang Bua was that the latter were shaped for tiny hands. Even more remarkable was that, although the cave was known to have been occupied by early humans of some description for about 800,000 years, the skull was found in a layer of sediments dating back just 18,000 years — long after the Neanderthals had disappeared from the face of the Earth, having lost the evolutionary battle to Homo sapiens.