Archaeologists have unearthed evidence of ancient humans carving tools from giant sloth bones in Brazil, dating back 25,000 to 27,000 years. The discovery suggests close interaction between early humans and these extinct megafauna.
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Researcher Mrian Pacheco holds a round, penny-sized sloth fossil dated to around 27,000 years ago, at the University of So Paulo, Brazil, on Sept 2, 2024, saying that unlike most other specimens, its surface is surprisingly smooth, the edges appear to have been deliberately polished, and theres a tiny hole near one edge.
This combination of illustrations provided by researchers in 2024 shows large animals which once roamed prehistoric North and South America. Top row from left, a glyptodon, a lestodon, and a horse. Bottom row from left, a mastodon, a saber-toothed cat and a toxodon. Thas Pansani examines giant sloth bones dated to about 25,000 to 27,000 years ago from central Brazil, some of which appear to be burned by human-made fire, at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, on July 11, 2024.
Some of the most tantalizing clues come from an archaeological site in central Brazil, called Santa Elina, where bones of giant ground sloths show signs of being manipulated by humans. Sloths like these once lived from Alaska to Argentina, and some species had bony structures on their backs, called osteoderms — a bit like the plates of modern armadillos — that may have been used to make decorations.
Originally researchers wondered if the craftsmen were working on already old fossils. But Pacheco’s research strongly suggests that ancient people were carving “fresh bones” shortly after the animals died. This date happens to coincide with the end of the last Ice Age, a time when an ice-free corridor likely emerged in North America — giving rise to an idea about how early humans moved into the continent after crossing the Bering land bridge from Asia.
“Anything older than about 15,000 years still draws intense scrutiny,” said Richard Fariña, a paleontologist at the University of the Republic in Montevideo, Uruguay. “But really compelling evidence from more and more older sites keeps coming to light.” One of her collaborators, paleontologist Thaís Pansani, recently based at the Smithsonian Institution, is analyzing whether similar-aged sloth bones found at Santa Elina were charred by human-made fires, which burn at different temperatures than natural wildfires.
Archaeology Paleontology Ancient Humans Giant Sloths Pleistocene
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