Flores Hobbits' eating habits offer clues about their evolutionary past
摘要
一项新研究对弗洛勒斯人（俗称“霍比特人”）的饮食习性进行了分析。约6万年前，这些矮小古人类与科莫多巨蜥、侏儒象及巨鼠共享弗洛勒斯岛。此前认为他们曾捕猎并屠宰侏儒象，但新证据表明，科莫多巨蜥才是真正的猎手，霍比特人仅以食腐为生。这一发现可能挑战关于弗洛勒斯人及其在古人类迁徙中角色的既有假设。
Until about 60,000 years ago, diminutive hominin cousins, Homo floresiensis (affectionately nicknamed Hobbits for obvious reasons), shared the island of Flores with Komodo dragons, pygmy elephants, and giant rats.
Based on the presence of hominin and pygmy elephant bones in the same layers of cave sediment, it originally looked like the Hobbits had hunted and butchered dwarf elephants—an impressive feat for such a tiny hominin. But according to University of Tübingen anthropologist Elizabeth Veatch and her colleagues, it was the Komodo dragons that were the hunters, while the Hobbits only showed up to scavenge what was left.
If Veatch and her colleagues are right, their findings may challenge some of the assumptions we’ve made about Homo floresiensis—and about which hominin species was the first to venture into the wider world beyond Africa.
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