Island fauna evolution through deep time: the Flores experiment

该项目旨在揭示包括人类在内的岛上动物的进化模式，以弗洛雷斯岛为例。通过对安全年代确定的化石、文物和跨越140万年的环境数据进行多学科分析，该项目预计将深入和广泛地重建动物群对岛屿条件和深部地质时代环境波动的适应。这项研究的意义包括首次对与岛屿矮化(随着时间的推移，大型动物变得更小)相关的假说进行了全面测试，并为唯一已知的岛上人--弗洛瑞斯人提供了第一个古生态背景。

This project aims to reveal the evolutionary patterns of insular fauna, including hominins, as exemplified by the island of Flores. Through multidisciplinary analyses of securely dated fossils, artefacts and environmental data spanning 1.4 million years, the project expects to provide a deep and broad reconstruction of faunal adaptations to insular conditions and environmental fluctuations through deep geological time. The significance of this research includes the first comprehensive testing of hypotheses associated with island dwarfing (where megafauna, over time, become smaller), and providing the first palaeo-ecological context for the only known insular hominin, Homo floresiensis.