The best fit model was a flexible CPL model, showing an initial increase in population density between ca. We also estimated density curves along with a local geometric growth rate analysis. Using 1,284 absolute dates we explored different null and continuous piecewise linear (CPL) models of regional population change. Given the heterogeneous environmental and cultural characteristics of this region, differences in the demographic dynamics across geographic areas are expected. Our goal is to study the spatio-temporal changes in human demographic density in Northwest Patagonia and central Chile throughout the Late Pleistocene-Holocene using geo-referenced absolute dates. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Tropical forests in the deep human past’. Lastly, we discuss the implications of our findings for understanding the early human history of tropical South America. Our findings contribute to the emerging picture of considerable geographical and stylistic variation of geometric and figurative rock art from early human occupations across South America. We argue that they are Ice Age rock art based on the (i) naturalistic appearance and diagnostic morphological features of the animal images, (ii) late Pleistocene archaeological dates from La Lindosa confirming the contemporaneity of humans and megafauna, (iii) recovery of ochre pigments in late Pleistocene archaeological strata, (iv) the presence of most megafauna identified in the region during the late Pleistocene as attested by archaeological and palaeontological records, and (v) widespread depiction of extinct megafauna in rock art across the Americas. Here, we examine potential megafauna depictions in the rock art of Serranía de la Lindosa, Colombian Amazon, that includes a giant sloth, a gomphothere, a camelid, horses and three-toed ungulates with trunks. However, the identification of extinct megafauna from rock art is controversial. Megafauna paintings have accompanied the earliest archaeological contexts across the continents, revealing a fundamental inter-relationship between early humans and megafauna during the global human expansion as unfamiliar landscapes were humanized and identities built into new territories. By synthesizing the complete evidence about human-megafauna interaction in an unnoticed continent, our database (available at fill an important gap from the international literature and will shed light on the analyses about the role of the human hunting activity on late Quaternary extinctions. Our results show that humans have exploited mastodons, giant ground sloths, giant armadillos, equids, bears, cervids and camelids for over 10,000 years, a much longer period than predicted by Paul Martin's overkill hypothesis. We identified 134 studies presenting 69 archaeological sites with evidence of human-megafauna interactions over the late Quaternary of South America (from ∼17,000 cal yr BP to ∼7,900 cal yr BP), from which we classified up to 17 reliable MKSs with 15 exploited megafauna genera. Here, we systematically searched for archaeological records with human-megafauna interaction in South America, and then classified and described the megafauna kill sites (MKSs) by following three protocols with successively restricting criteria: Grayson and Meltzer (2015, 2002), Borrero (2009) and Mothé et al. South America is the continent with the largest amount of megafauna extinctions at the end of the Pleistocene (∼50 genera), but the empirical evidence of megafauna exploitation by humans is little known by the international scientific community and often ignored from systematic reviews of global megafauna extinctions. KeywordsSouth America-Late Glacial archeology-mega-faunal extinctions ![]() ![]() This situation alone must make us acknowledge South America to be an exceptionalĬase, worthy of an intensive and detailed study. Planet (Fariña, 1996 Prevosti and Vizcaíno, 2006). The Pampas alone were populated byģ8 extinct herbivore genera in excess of 100 kg, 20 of which were megaherbivores, a fauna that has no living analog on the The apparent lack of interest is surprising,Ĭonsidering that South America, according to Martin and Steadman (1999:38), lost “over 50 genera of large mammals, more thanĪny other continent”, or at least 40 genera according to Cione and coauthors (2003:10). Martin, 1984 Barnosky et al., 2004 Steadman et al., 2005 Koch and Barnosky, 2006). ![]() Here I consider the evidence for the interactions of humans and South American late Pleistocene megafauna, a subject not usuallyĬovered in much detail in general compilations dealing with Pleistocene extinctions (cf.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |