• Email Us: [email protected]
  • Contact Us: +1 718 874 1545
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Medical Market Report

  • Home
  • All Reports
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

Butchered Giant Armadillo Shows Humans Were In South America 21,000 Years Ago

July 17, 2024 by Deborah Bloomfield

The chopped-up carcass of a giant armadillo shows that humans were in South America much earlier than previously realized. Dating to around 21,000 years old, the butchered remains also show some of the earliest archaeological evidence of people in the southern stretches of the continent.

The fossilized bones were discovered along the banks of the Reconquista River, northeast of the Pampean region in modern-day Argentina. They belonged to a species of glyptodont, an extinct giant relative of armadillos, called Neosclerocalyptus that could grow up to 2 meters (6.5 feet) in length – and could apparently make for a generous meal.

Archaeologists at the National University of La Plata found distinctive cut marks around the pelvis, tail, and body armor made by the slicing and chopping of stone tools.

The Americas were once rich in megafauna (aka very large animals) that have since fallen into extinction, including giant ground sloths and a humongous form of llama. Plenty of evidence suggests that prehistoric humans hunted these giant beasts, raising the idea that overhunting was responsible for their extinction (typical humans, eh?). 

Drawing of a Neosclerocalyptus skeleton highlighting cut-marked skeletal elements in light blue found on the specimen.

Drawing of a Neosclerocalyptus skeleton highlighting cut-marked skeletal elements in light blue found on the specimen.

Image credit: Del Papa et al., 2024, PLOS ONE (CC-BY 4.0)

The dating of the new Neosclerocalyptus remains – between 21,090 and 20,811 years old – is especially significant. Recent decades have seen a huge amount of debate about when humans achieved the mammoth task of migrating from Eurasia into the Americas. 

Conservative estimates suggest the first human peopling in the Americas began at least 16,000 years ago. However, a long reel of recent studies has pushed back this timeframe. One of the most incredible pieces of evidence comes in the form of human footprints in New Mexico that were imprinted sometime between 23,000 and 21,000 years ago. Some archaeologists contest this claim, but it was later reaffirmed by another study.

Advertisement

The recent discovery of the butchered armadillo affirms that the first humans arrived in the Americas well before 16,000 years ago. Furthermore, the evidence shows that human people had arrived in southern South America long before this too. 

The current consensus says that humans first set foot in the Americas after migrating from Siberia to present-day Alaska across Beringia, a land bridge that existed during the last Ice Age when sea levels were significantly lower. Numerous waves of migration likely occurred and, over the millennia, some of these groups started to trek further south, eventually settling as far as southern South America thousands upon thousands of kilometers away from Beringia.

Archaeologists and anthropologists are still trying to piece together this epic story, and the latest discovery of butchering along the Reconquista River will certainly add to the debate. 

“The study’s evidence puts into question the time frame for the first human peopling of the Americas 16,000 years ago,” Miguel Delgado, the corresponding author, said in a statement.

Advertisement

The new study is published in the journal PLOS ONE.

Deborah Bloomfield
Deborah Bloomfield

Related posts:

  1. U.S. banking lobby groups oppose proposed tax reporting law
  2. Video Shows Albert Einstein Explaining His Most Famous Equation
  3. Secret Service Agent At JFK Assassination Casts Doubt On Single Bullet Theory
  4. If Brain Transplants Like The One In Poor Things Were Possible, This Is How They Might Work

Source Link: Butchered Giant Armadillo Shows Humans Were In South America 21,000 Years Ago

Filed Under: News

Primary Sidebar

  • World’s Oldest Pots: 20,000-Year-Old Vessels May Have Been Used For Cooking Clams Or Brewing Beer
  • “The Body Is Slowly And Continuously Heated”: 14,000-Year-Old Smoked Mummies Are World’s Oldest
  • Pizza Slices, Polaroid Pictures, And Over 300 Hats: What’s Left Behind In Yellowstone’s Hydrothermal Areas?
  • The Mathematical Paradox That Lets You Create Something From Nothing
  • Ancient Asteroid Ripped Apart In Collision Had Flowing Water
  • Flying Foxes Include The World’s Biggest Bat And The Largest Mammal Capable Of True Flight
  • NASA Responds To Claims That Interstellar Object 3I/ATLAS Is An Advanced Alien Spacecraft
  • Millions Of Tons Of Gold Are In Earth’s Oceans, Potentially Worth Over $2 Quadrillion
  • The Race Back To The Moon: US Vs China, Will What Happens Next Change The Future?
  • NOAA Issues G3 Geomagnetic Storm Warning As 500,000 Kilometer Hole Sends Solar Wind At Earth
  • Lasting 776 Days, This Is The Longest Case Of COVID-19 Ever Recorded
  • Living Cement: The Microbes In Your Walls Could Power The Future
  • What Can Your Earwax Reveal About Your Health?
  • Ever Seen A Giraffe Use An Inhaler? Now You Can, And It’s Incredibly Wholesome
  • Martian Mudstone Has Features That Might Be Biosignatures, New Brain Implant Can Decode Your Internal Monologue, And Much More This Week
  • Crocodiles Weren’t All Blood-Thirsty Killers, Some Evolved To Be Plant-Eating Vegetarians
  • Stratospheric Warming Event May Be Unfolding In The Southern Polar Vortex, Shaking Up Global Weather Systems
  • 15 Years Ago, Bees In Brooklyn Appeared Red After Snacking Where They Shouldn’t
  • Carnian Pluvial Event: It Rained For 2 Million Years — And It Changed Planet Earth Forever
  • There’s Volcanic Unrest At The Campi Flegrei Caldera – Here’s What We Know
  • Business
  • Health
  • News
  • Science
  • Technology
  • +1 718 874 1545
  • +91 78878 22626
  • [email protected]
Office Address
Prudour Pvt. Ltd. 420 Lexington Avenue Suite 300 New York City, NY 10170.

Powered by Prudour Network

Copyrights © 2025 · Medical Market Report. All Rights Reserved.

Go to mobile version