‘First Brazilians’ made jewelry from sloths 25,000 years ago

A team of archaeologists has found the preserved bones of giant ground sloths that lived in Brazil about 25,000 years ago, according to a study published in the scientific journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Researchers of these Jewelry made by ‘Brazilians of the Time’: three pendants carved from the bones of giant slothsIt is located in a cave in the Midwest of the country.

The scientists found the evidence during their expedition to Abrigo de Santa Elina, a rocky archaeological site located in the municipality of Jangada in Mato Grosso. The site has been excavated several times and represents an important record of human history, including the first time scientists have found the bones of giant sloths at the site.

Archaeologists found the jewels in a layer of cave soil. It was crafted from the bones of giant sloths that lived between 25,000 and 27,000 years ago.. The findings represent further evidence that humans lived and hunted at the same time as giant sloths – these animals were up to 4 meters in size and weighed more than 1,500 kilograms.

Brazilians and giant sloths?

Scientists believed that the first ‘Brazilians’ living in the area now known as Brazil arrived 15,000 years ago; but the sloth pendant indicates that this was a long time ago.

“Among the thousands of fossil osteoderms in the field, the drilled and polished form of the three osteoderms studied here is outstanding. These observations suggest that these three osteoderms were turned into artifacts by humans, possibly for personal ornaments,” he said.

Jewels and sloths

Giant sloths are part of a group of giant prehistoric mammals, like other megafauna in the Pelistocene that went extinct about ten thousand years ago. Currently, there are hundreds of well-preserved ground sloth fossils found in different caves around the world.

As the experts explain, the most interesting thing about the discovery is the evidence that humans were already living in the area 25,000 years ago; By then, many scientists had claimed that the first group of humans known as the Clovis culture arrived in the Americas between 15,000 and 13,000 years ago. Well, The necklace proves that humans have existed for longer than we think, long before the region was known as Brazil.

“They were agile animals that walked predominantly on all fours, although they had a low metabolism and were able to stand (mainly foraging in trees) for food. Study author and paleontologist Thais Pansani said in an email to CNN that humans have made these animals a threat. “We can’t say whether he saw it or not,” he said.

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