3D rendering of the probable butchery event according to a paleoartistic reconstruction. The illustration was made by modeling three-dimensional meshes, 3D digital scanning, and texturing by projection, based on the proportions of the excavated fossil materials and the results obtained in the study. Credit: Damián Voglino, Museo de Ciencias Naturales A.
The timing of early human occupation of South America is a topic of intense debate, highly relevant to a study of early human dispersal across the Americas and of humans’ potential role in the extinction of large mammals at the end of the Pleistocene Epoch. This discussion is hampered by a general scarcity of direct archaeological evidence of early human presence and human-animal interactions.skeleton highlighting cut-marked skeletal elements in light blue found at the CRS-10 specimen.
These results fit with other recent findings that indicate early human presence in the Americas over 20,000 years ago. These fossils are also among the oldest evidence of human interaction with large mammals shortly before many of those mammals became extinct. The authors suggest that these findings might be further supported by additional excavation at this site, further analysis of the cut marks, and more extensive radiocarbon dating of the fossils.
Miguel Delgado, the corresponding author, adds: “The study’s evidence puts into question the time frame for the first human peopling of the Americas 16,000 years ago.” Reference: “Anthropic cut marks in extinct megafauna bones from the Pampean region at the last glacial maximum” by Mariano Del Papa, Martin De Los Reyes, Daniel G.