Quoting Harry Lee <[log in to unmask]>:

> Listers,
>
> Early yesterday evening, I heard an NPR commentary on the scientific  
> report treated here:  
> <http://www.nature.com/news/homo-erectus-made-world-s-oldest-doodle-500-000-years-ago-1.16477>http://www.nature.com/news/homo-erectus-made-world-s-oldest-doodle-500-000-years-ago-1.16477>.
>
> Unless I had a lapsus, the report, which ran several minutes and  
> included interviews with more than one responsible anthropologist,  
> never elaborated beyond the term "mussel," which imprecision I found  
> a bit confusing and possibly inaccurate.

* but the Nature article doesn't say which species it is. I commented  
on Unio-L that an inscribed zigzag is not evidence of either art or  
"abstract thought," and it looks like somebody is trolling for a big  
grant here. It seems more probable to me that H. erectus the  
inscription was the catalogue number of the specimen, allowing us to  
infer the early invention of the shell collection...

fred.
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