Institute of Zoology, Zoological Society of London, Regent's Park, London NW1 4RY, UK.
Ocean and Earth Science, National Oceanography Centre Southampton, University of Southampton, Waterfront Campus, European Way, Southampton SO14 3ZH, UK.
Sci Adv. 2018 Sep 12;4(9):eaat6925. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aat6925. eCollection 2018 Sep.
Previous research suggests that people first arrived on Madagascar by ~2500 years before present (years B.P.). This hypothesis is consistent with butchery marks on extinct lemur bones from ~2400 years B.P. and perhaps with archaeological evidence of human presence from ~4000 years B.P. We report >10,500-year-old human-modified bones for the extinct elephant birds and , which show perimortem chop marks, cut marks, and depression fractures consistent with immobilization and dismemberment. Our evidence for anthropogenic perimortem modification of directly dated bones represents the earliest indication of humans in Madagascar, predating all other archaeological and genetic evidence by >6000 years and changing our understanding of the history of human colonization of Madagascar. This revision of Madagascar's prehistory suggests prolonged human-faunal coexistence with limited biodiversity loss.
先前的研究表明，人类大约在 2500 年前（公元前）首次抵达马达加斯加。这一假说与来自公元前 2400 年的灭绝狐猴骨骼上的屠宰痕迹一致，也许与公元前 4000 年左右的人类存在的考古证据一致。我们报告了 >10500 年前人类对已灭绝的象鸟和 进行了修饰的骨骼，这些骨骼显示出濒死期的砍痕、切割痕迹和凹陷性骨折，与固定和肢解一致。我们有证据表明，直接定年的骨骼经历了人为的濒死期修饰，这代表了人类在马达加斯加最早的存在迹象，比其他所有考古学和遗传学证据早了 >6000 年，改变了我们对人类殖民马达加斯加历史的理解。马达加斯加史前史的这一修订表明，人类与有限的生物多样性丧失的动物群长期共存。
