印尼弗洛勒斯岛上的类人猿活动可以追溯到至少80万年前，对位于Soa Basin中Mata Menge的考古点（这个地方的考古结果是在位于西边的Liang Bua的“弗洛勒斯人”化石被发现之前发表的） 通过“裂变径迹”法进行年代测定获得的证据证明了这一点。

在Soa Basin中另一地点进行的新的研究工作（关于这项工作的新闻报道，利用更准确的40Ar/39Ar测年技术发现，类人猿100万年前就在弗洛勒斯岛上生活。这个发现对认为类人猿的到来是造成一种巨龟和矮象大量死亡的一个因素的观点提出了疑问，相反它们的大量死亡可能与自然过程有关。

原文出处：

Nature doi:10.1038/nature08844

Hominins on Flores, Indonesia, by one million years ago
Adam Brumm1, Gitte M. Jensen2, Gert D. van den Bergh1,3, Michael J. Morwood1, Iwan Kurniawan4, Fachroel Aziz4 & Michael Storey2

Previous excavations at Mata Menge and Boa Lesa in the Soa Basin of Flores, Indonesia, recovered stone artefacts in association with fossilized remains of the large-bodied Stegodon florensis florensis 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. Zircon fission-track ages from these sites indicated that hominins had colonized the island by 0.88±0.07 million years (Myr) ago6. Here we describe the contents, context and age of Wolo Sege, a recently discovered archaeological site in the Soa Basin that has in situ stone artefacts and that lies stratigraphically below Mata Menge and immediately above the basement breccias of the basin. We show using 40Ar/39Ar dating that an ignimbrite overlying the artefact layers at Wolo Sege was erupted 1.02?±?0.02?Myr ago, providing a new minimum age for hominins on Flores. This predates the disappearance from the Soa Basin of ‘pygmy’ Stegodon sondaari and Geochelone spp. (giant tortoise), as evident at the nearby site of Tangi Talo, which has been dated to 0.90±0.07Myr ago10. It now seems that this extirpation or possible extinction event and the associated faunal turnover were the result of natural processes rather than the arrival of hominins9. It also appears that the volcanic and fluvio-lacustrine deposits infilling the Soa Basin may not be old enough to register the initial arrival of hominins on the island.