Footprints preserve terminal Pleistocene hunt? Human-sloth interactions in North America.
other · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 29707640.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1126/sciadv.aar7621 and PMC identifier 5916513.
- Licence recorded as CC BY-NC.
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Abstract
Predator-prey interactions revealed by vertebrate trace fossils are extremely rare. We present footprint evidence from White Sands National Monument in New Mexico for the association of sloth and human trackways. Geologically, the sloth and human trackways were made contemporaneously, and the sloth trackways show evidence of evasion and defensive behavior when associated with human tracks. Behavioral inferences from these trackways indicate prey selection and suggest that humans were harassing, stalking, and/or hunting the now-extinct giant ground sloth in the terminal Pleistocene.
Medical subject headings
- Archaeology
- Paleontology
- Sloths