Ancient humans regularly hunted now-extinct elephants at lake in Chile, study says

Thousands of years ago, early humans were hunting massive animals in modern-day Chile, archaeologists recently discovered.

The finding was made during an archaeological excavation of Tagua Tagua Lake, a dried up lake bed that lies in the mountains of central Chile, according to a study published May 22 in the journal PLOS One.

The site contained fossilized remains of gomphotheres, a type of elephant that lived throughout much of the world up until the early Holocene period.

Evidence of wear on the bones, as well as the presence of stone tools, indicates hunter-gatherers butchered and ate the large mammals near the lake.

Considering their large size, it’s likely that the gomphotheres were butchered in the same place that they died.

The process of stripping meat from the bones would have taken hours, but the hunter-gatherers could have stayed near the carcass for more than a week for other activities, perhaps including feasts.

Evidence also suggests that the animals’ bones were hastily buried, researchers, who are affiliated with various organizations in South America and Europe, said.

In addition to the gomphothere bones, the remains of a number of smaller animals were also recovered, including rodents and amphibians.

Using radiocarbon dating, archaeologists determined the animals were killed between 12,440 and 12,550 years ago — and likely during the dry season.

“We conclude that the ancient Tagua Tagua lake was a key location along the region’s early hunter-gatherer mobility circuits,” the study authors wrote. “It acted as a recurrent hunting/scavenging place during the Late Pleistocene due to its abundant, diverse, and predictable resources.”

The findings come as the exact time in which humans migrated to the South American continent remains hotly debated by researchers.

While some believe there is evidence to support hunter-gatherers living on the continent up to 130,000 years ago, most of the discovered sites only date back some 33,000 years.

The study’s findings will “help to construct a more robust and comprehensive picture of the late Pleistocene hunter-gatherers of southern South America,” researchers said.