Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2019 Mar 6;5(3):eaau4546.
doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aau4546. eCollection 2019 Mar.

Campo Laborde: A Late Pleistocene giant ground sloth kill and butchering site in the Pampas

Gustavo G Politis  1 , Pablo G Messineo  2 , Thomas W Stafford Jr  3 , Emily L Lindsey  4
Affiliations

Campo Laborde: A Late Pleistocene giant ground sloth kill and butchering site in the Pampas

Gustavo G Politis et al. Sci Adv. .

Abstract

The extinction of Pleistocene megafauna and the role played by humans have been subjects of constant debate in American archeology. Previous evidence from the Pampas region of Argentina suggested that this environment might have provided a refugium for the Holocene survival of several megamammals. However, recent excavations and more advanced accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon dating at Campo Laborde site in the Argentinian Pampas challenge the Holocene survival of Pleistocene megamammals and provide original and high-quality information documenting direct human impact on the Pleistocene fauna. The new data offer definitive evidence for hunting and butchering of Megatherium americanum (giant ground sloth) at 12,600 cal years BP and dispute previous interpretations that Pleistocene megamammals survived into the Holocene in the Pampas.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1. Location of Campo Laborde site in South America.
(A) Map of the Pampas grassland of Argentina (province of Buenos Aires), showing main sites mentioned in the text. References: 1, Campo Laborde site; 2, La Moderna site; 3, Arroyo Seco 2 site; 4, Paso Otero 4 and 5 sites; 5, Arroyo Tapalqué; 6, Centinela del Mar; red circles, archeological sites; blue circles, paleontological sites. (B) Aerial view of excavation area, picture courtesy of C. F. Dubois. [Photo credit: Dr. Cristian Favier Dubois. INCUAPA-CONICET, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales (UNICEN)].
Fig. 2
Fig. 2. Plan map of the Campo Laborde excavation site.
Distribution of complete and fragmentary bones and lithic tools. Shaded drawings (black) indicate lithic materials (FCS.CLA.33, FCS.CLA.183, FCS.CLA.1989, and FCS.CLA.1990). Red and green dashed lines show lithic refits. Sample dated in this paper (FCS.CLA.154). A-B black line indicates geologic cross section (see Fig. 4 and fig. S5).
Fig. 3
Fig. 3. Lithic tools found at Campo Laborde site.
(A) Lanceolate bifacial projectile point stem (FCS.CLA.33). (B) Striations and small pits related with hafted micropolishing (×200 magnification). (C) Distal half of a broken side scraper (FCS.CLA.183). (D) Proximal half of a broken side scraper (FCS.CLA.1990). (E) Biface (FCS.CLA.1989). [Photo credit: Pablo Messineo. INCUAPA-CONICET, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales (UNICEN)].
Fig. 4
Fig. 4. Cut marks on M. americanum rib (FCS.CLA.9).
[Photo credit: Pablo Messineo. INCUAPA-CONICET, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales (UNICEN)].
Fig. 5
Fig. 5. Stratigraphy of the Campo Laborde site.
[Photo credit: Pablo Messineo. INCUAPA-CONICET, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales (UNICEN)].
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Barnosky A. D., Koch P. L., Feranec R. S., Wing S. L., Shabel A. B., Assessing the causes of late Pleistocene extinctions on the continents. Science 306, 70–75 (2004). - PubMed
    1. Koch P. L., Barnosky A. D., Late Quaternary extinctions: State of the debate. Annu. Rev. Ecol. Evol. S. 37, 215–250 (2006).
    1. A. L. Cione, E. P. Tonni, L. Soibelzon, Did humans cause the Late Pleistocene-Early Holocene mammalian extinctions in South America in a context of shrinking open areas? in American Megafaunal Extinctions at the End of the Pleistocene, G. Haynes, Ed. (Springer, 2009), pp. 125–144.
    1. Villavicencio N. A., Lindsey E. L., Martin F. M., Borrero L. A., Moreno P. I., Marshall C. R., Barnosky A. D., Combination of humans, climate, and vegetation change triggered Late Quaternary megafauna extinction in the Última Esperanza region, southern Patagonia, Chile. Ecography 39, 125–140 (2016).
    1. Ripple W. J., Van Valkenburgh B. V., Linking top-down forces to the Pleistocene megafaunal extinctions. Bioscience 60, 516–526 (2010).

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources