Illustration of South American megafaunaNational University of La Plata
Posted on 10/08/2025 7:39:35 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
According to a Phys.org report, large numbers of megafauna bones discovered at archaeological sites in three South American countries suggest that humans regularly consumed giant sloths and giant armadillos between 13,000 and 11,600 years ago. Luciano Prates of the National University of La Plata and his colleagues examined animal bones recovered from 20 archaeological sites across Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay, and determined that more than 80 percent of them at 15 of the locations belonged to megafauna. It had been previously thought that Ice Age hunter-gatherers in the region hunted the large animals occasionally, but survived day to day by eating smaller animals such as deer and guanacos, a relative of the camel. Prates and his team members now think that hunters in South America targeted megafauna because larger animals yielded more food. Smaller animals only became a regular part of the diet after the megafauna were hunted to extinction, they argue. Read the original scholarly article about this research in Science Advances. For more on evidence of interactions between humans and Ice Age animals, go to "Ghost Tracks of White Sands."
(Excerpt) Read more at archaeology.org ...
Illustration of South American megafaunaNational University of La Plata
Flood, Fire, and Famine
in the History of Civilization
by Richard Firestone,
Allen West, and
Simon Warwick-Smith
I ate it.
Don’t tell Mom.
I would think it would be quite brave to try and bring down a giant sloth with spears!
Once you figure out that smoking the meat means a single big kill can provide tasty protein for months...
It you want in dead right there right now, yes.
If you're willing to plant a spear in its belly and wait a few days for it to succumb to infection or blood loss while standing back watching and munching on smoked jerky from the last kill, perhaps not so dangerous...
>> If you’re willing to plant a spear in its belly and wait a few days for it to succumb to infection or blood loss
Ah, the good old days, before PETA protests!
As an aside, my son today told me today that our appendix was used by early man to help consume raw meat. Thus, we no longer need it today.
... so long as you’re not the one on duty watching it from below.
“What Happened to South America’s Megafauna?”
I once wondered about this, but the answer is pretty simple.
I did make the assumption that there was not substantially less gravity back then just because I wondered how that could happen also.
So today we mostly have whales in the water, but not much larger things than elephants on land.
in order for larger things other than trees to be viable there would need to be a much denser atmosphere with a lot more carbon dioxide to feed the plant life which in turn produces lots of oxygen and feeds the herbivores, and as they multiply the carnivores do too.
It is not that hard to understand
Megafauna disappeared everywhere humans went...New Zealand, Asia, North America, it doesn’t matter.Ancient humans weren’t good at wildlife preservation.
Genius! Why did't anybody else think of that?
Zackly.
A recent study claimed the appendix was for growing and storing good bacteria for digestion.
The reverse is true!
In our evolutionary past, the appendix was larger, and was used to digest fibrous (vegetable) material.
Recent thinking suggests that the appendix might serve as a "safe house" for beneficial bacteria that might otherwise be lost after, e.g., a severe bout of diarrhea.
Regards,
You should publish!
Regards,
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