Paleontologist Has Found The 37,000-year-old Remains Of Two Woolly Mammoths
A palaeontologist in New Mexico discovered the 37,000-year-old bones of two woolly mammoths, which portray a grim picture of slaughter and butchery.
Paleontologist Timothy Rowe discovered these ancient remains in his own garden when a neighbour saw a mammoth tusk peeping out of the dirt on a slope on Rowe’s property.
Humans moulded parts of their long bones into disposable blades to break down their corpses, then rendered their fat over a fire, according to bones from the butchering site. However, one important element distinguishes this site from others from the same date. It’s in New Mexico, where most archaeological evidence places people tens of thousands of years later.
According to a new study headed by researchers from The University of Texas at Austin, the site provides some of the most solid evidence for people establishing in North America considerably earlier than previously assumed.
Woolly mammoth sighting Siberia
The researchers uncovered a lot of material that is rarely encountered in one location. Fossils with blunt-force fractures, bone flake knives with worn edges, and evidence of controlled fire are among the items found. And, owing to carbon dating tests on collagen derived from Woolly Mammoth bones, the site has a confirmed age of 36,250 to 38,900 years old, placing it among the earliest known ancient human settlements in North America.
“What we’ve got is incredible,” said lead author Timothy Rowe, a palaeontologist and professor at the University of Tennessee Jackson School of Geosciences. “It’s not a captivating location with a gorgeous skeleton laying on its side.” It’s completely wrecked. But that’s the point of the narrative.”
Rowe does not normally study mammoths or people. He became interested when the bones appeared in his property. In 2013, a neighbour saw a tusk weathering off a hillslope on Rowe’s New Mexico property. When Rowe went to investigate, he discovered a bashed-in mammoth head and other bones that appeared to have been purposely damaged. It seemed to be a slaughterhouse. However, the location of probable early human sites is shrouded in mystery. It may be infamously difficult to distinguish between what was created by nature and what was shaped by human hands.
This ambiguity has sparked discussion among anthropologists regarding when people originally arrived in North America. The Clovis culture, which existed 16,000 years ago, left behind intricate stone-carved implements. However, in earlier sites where stone tools are absent, the evidence becomes more subjective, according to retired Texas State University Professor Mike Collins, who directed studies at Gault, a well-known archaeological site near Austin with an abundance of Clovis and pre-Clovis items.