diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index aad32bf..96db3f6 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -302,11 +302,16 @@ var newList = cursor.select('one').shift('two');
 Splices the selected list. This will of course fail if the selected node is not a list.
 
 The `splice` specifications works the same as for [`Array.prototype.splice`](https://developer.mozilla.org/fr/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Objets_globaux/Array/splice).
+There is one exception though: Per specification, splice deletes no values if the `deleteCount` argument is not parseable as a number.
+The `splice` implementation of Baobab instead throws an error, if the given `deleteCount` argument could not be parsed.
 
 ```js
 // Splicing the list
 var newList = cursor.splice([1, 1]);
 
+// Omitting the deleteCount argument makes splice delete no elements. 
+var newList = cursor.splice([1]);
+
 // Inserting an item etc.
 var newList = cursor.splice([1, 0, 'newItem']);
 var newList = cursor.splice([1, 0, 'newItem1', 'newItem2']);
diff --git a/src/helpers.js b/src/helpers.js
index e0d8e9b..d1cddd3 100644
--- a/src/helpers.js
+++ b/src/helpers.js
@@ -570,6 +570,12 @@ export function solveUpdate(affectedPaths, comparedPaths) {
  * @return {array}                 - The spliced array.
  */
 export function splice(array, startIndex, nb, ...elements) {
+  if (nb === undefined)
+    nb = array.length - startIndex;
+  else if (nb === null)
+    nb = 0;
+  else if (Number.isNaN(Number.parseInt(nb)))
+    throw new Error(`argument nb ${nb} can not be parsed into a number!`);
   nb = Math.max(0, nb);
 
   // Solving startIndex
diff --git a/src/type.js b/src/type.js
index 8e2fbf8..98b8978 100644
--- a/src/type.js
+++ b/src/type.js
@@ -112,11 +112,12 @@ type.primitive = function(target) {
  * @return {boolean}
  */
 type.splicer = function(target) {
-  if (!type.array(target) || target.length < 2)
+  if (!type.array(target) || target.length < 1)
+    return false;
+  if(target.length > 1 && Number.isNaN(Number.parseInt(target[1])))
     return false;
 
-  return anyOf(target[0], ['number', 'function', 'object']) &&
-         type.number(target[1]);
+  return anyOf(target[0], ['number', 'function', 'object']);
 };
 
 /**
diff --git a/test/suites/helpers.js b/test/suites/helpers.js
index a3312f2..3e08329 100644
--- a/test/suites/helpers.js
+++ b/test/suites/helpers.js
@@ -223,6 +223,30 @@ describe('Helpers', function() {
         [{name: 'John'}, {name: 'Paul'}]
       );
     });
+
+    describe('Issue #472 - tree/cursor.splice does not conform with the specification as of ES6 (ECMAScript 2015)', function () {
+      it('should be possible to splice an array when omitting the nb (deleteCount) argument or passing null', function () {
+        const array = [0, 1, 2, 3, 4];
+
+        assert.deepEqual(splice(array, 2), [0, 1]);
+
+        assert.deepEqual(splice(array, -2), [0, 1, 2]);
+
+        assert.deepEqual(splice(array, 2, null), [0, 1, 2, 3, 4]);
+      });
+
+      it('should throw an error when supplying an argument for nb (deleteCount) which is not parseable as number', function () {
+        const array = [0, 1, 2, 3, 4];
+
+        assert.throws(function () {
+			splice(array, 2, "a");
+		}, Error);
+
+        assert.throws(function () {
+			splice(array, 2, {});
+		}, Error);
+      });
+    });
   });
 
   /**