Bones from slaughtered animal indicate humans in South America earlier than estimated

Fossilized bones of a relative big armadillo found in the Argentina with cut marks suggesting slaughter indicate that humans were present in South America around 21,000 years ago, according to researchers, an earlier period than previously estimated.

The bones were from a herbivorous mammal with large armor called 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 cuts on the bones appeared to have been made by people using stone instruments . This indicates strong evidence of the presence of our species, Homo sapiens although no human fossils have been found at the site.

Glyptodonts are relatives of today’s armadillos although much larger — some species even had the size of a small car . They had large bony armor, reminiscent of a turtle shell, as well as a kind of helmet, in addition to a strong tail and short limbs.

Neosclerocalyptus was one of the smallest species. The individual in this study was 180 cm long and weighed about 300 kg. The markings on the bone were found in the regions of the pelvis, tail and its armor .

“The location of the cuts is consistent with the slaughter sequence which focuses on regions with a lot of meat, that is, the cuts were not distributed randomly, but focused on the elements of the skeleton that contained large muscle groups such as the pelvis and tail. It is a typical pattern seen in the animal slaughter process,” said anthropologist Miguel Delgado, from the National University of La Plata, senior author of the study published this Wednesday (17) in the journal PLOS ONE.

The shapes of the cuts are also consistent with those created using types of chipped stone tools and stone hammers Delgado added. Anthropologist and study leader Mariano del Papa of the National University of La Plata said that “the only ones capable of making (these types of marks) are humans.”

The timeline for the settlement of the Americas is a subject of intense debate, with some recent discoveries indicating that humans arrived much earlier than initially estimated. The role of humans in the extinction of several large mammals in the Americas has also been the subject of controversy. Neosclerocalyptus fossils are among the oldest evidence of human interaction with these large Ice Age animals.

“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 placed within that period. In recent years, new evidence has indicated an earlier human presence,” Delgado said.