Butchered animal bones indicate earliest human presence in southern
South America
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[July 18, 2024]
By Miguel Lo Bianco
BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Fossil bones found in Argentina of a large
armadillo relative with cut marks suggestive of butchering indicate
humans were present in southern South America some 21,000 years ago,
according to researchers, earlier than previously thought.
The bones were from a large armored plant-eating mammal named
Neosclerocalyptus, part of a group called glyptodonts that inhabited the
Americas for more than 30 million years before going extinct at the end
of the Ice Age about 10,000 years ago.
The researchers said the cut marks on the bones appear to have been made
by people using stone tools. That represents strong evidence for the
presence of our species, Homo sapiens, though no human fossils were
found at the site, they added.
Glyptodonts are related to modern-day armadillos, though much larger -
some species as big as a small car. They had a large, bony carapace that
covered much of the body - resembling a turtle shell - as well as armor
atop the head, a large and strongly built tail and short limbs.
Neosclerocalyptus was one of the smaller species. The individual in this
study was about 6 feet long (180 cm) and roughly 660 pounds (300
kilograms).
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The marks on the bones were found on the pelvis, tail and body armor.
"The placement of these cut marks is consistent with a butchering
sequence that targets areas of dense flesh, that is, the cut marks were
not randomly distributed but focused on those skeletal elements that
harbored large muscle packs like the pelvis and the tail. This is a
typical pattern observed during a butchering process," said
anthropologist Miguel Delgado of National University of La Plata, senior
author of the study published on Wednesday in the journal PLOS ONE.
The shapes of the cut marks are consistent with those created using
types of stone tools called flakes and hammerstones, Delgado added.
Anthropologist and study lead author Mariano del Papa of National
University of La Plata said that "the only ones capable of making them
(these marks) were humans."
The timeline for the peopling of the Americas has been a matter of
debate, with some recent discoveries indicating humans had arrived much
earlier than previously thought. The role of people in the extinction of
many large mammals in the Americas also has been a subject of
controversy. The Neosclerocalyptus fossils are among the oldest evidence
of human interaction with these large Ice Age animals.
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![](../images/071824PIX/news_g9.jpg)
Colombian anthropologist Miguel Delgado holds a fossilized bone of a
Glyptodon with an evidence suggesting the animal was hunted, at
Buenos Aires' Natural Science museum, in Buenos Aires, Argentina,
July 1, 2024. REUTERS/Mariana Nedelcu
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The new findings represent the oldest evidence of both the presence
of Homo sapiens and human interaction with large animals in southern
South America during the height of the last Ice Age, a time known as
the Last Glacial Maximum, and one of the oldest in all of South
America, the researchers said.
"Until recently, the traditional model suggested that modern humans
(Homo sapiens) entered the Americas 16,000 years ago, so most of the
archaeological evidence was framed during that period. Since a few
years ago, new evidence has been found indicating an earlier human
presence," Delgado said.
"Currently, we know that in South America reliable evidence was
recovered in Brazil from 23,000 years ago, but it's worth noting
that contemporaneous sites were found in North America with material
dated between 21,000 and 23,000 years ago, and even earlier sites
were also found in Central America dated between 26,000 and 19,000
years ago," Delgado added.
The Neosclerocalyptus fossils were unearthed in 2015 from the banks
of the Reconquista River near the town of Merlo in the Buenos Aires
metropolitan area, dating to the Pleistocene epoch. A method called
radiocarbon dating determined that the fossils were about 21,000
years old.
National University of La Plata paleontologist and study co-author
Martin de Los Reyes said, "This would be the first evidence of
humans in Argentina and the Southern Cone of South America."
"We are shifting the traditional paradigm that speaks of a specific
moment of human arrival in the Americas," Delgado added.
(Reporting by Miguel Lo Bianco; Writing by Noelle Harff; Editing by
Will Dunham and Lucinda Elliott)
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