Remains of early South American elephants found in Chile

Confirmation that a Chilean-Spanish scientific team has discovered fossil remains of gomphotheres, extinct relatives of current elephants that lived more than 12,000 years ago, near the Lake Taguataguain central Chile, the world of archeology is surprising at the moment.

As reported on Monday by the Catalan Institute of Human Paleoecology and Social Evolution (IPHES), which led the work together with the Pontifical Council Catholic University of Chile and O’Higgins University, these animals were killed and worked “with lithic tools and represent one of the oldest evidence of human presence in South America”.

The discovery is the result of the excavation, which was funded by the Palarq Foundation and which took place between 12 and 26 September, in Taguatagua 3 depositin San Vicente de Tagua (Chile).

According to IPHES, the Taguatagua 3 deposit is an international reference point for the study of first populations in South Americathe last of the continents to be occupied by man.

In this excavation campaign, paleontologists have found more than a hundred fossil remains of gomphotheresan extinct relative of the current elephants, which were killed and worked “by human groups of hunter-gatherers more than 12,000 years ago, but also lithic tools used for these activities”.

IPHES researchers have highlighted that these stone tools show “a high degree of refinement in their elaboration” as well as the use of high quality raw materials, some obtained with stones from hundreds of kilometers from the site, where bonfires associated with the camps have also been documented.

During previous campaigns on this same site, fossil remains of gomphotheres, horses, deer and thousands of remains of minor fauna: from birds to small mammals, passing through amphibians, fish and reptiles that have been preserved thanks to the slow dynamics of lagoon deposition of the deposit.

According to the researchers, much of the fossil remains present proof of the use of fire, for cooking and subsequent consumption.

The safeguarding of the site and the conservation of the organic remains (remains of fauna and flora) has been favoured, according to the IPHES paleontologists, because it is the environment of an ancient lake.

This year’s discovery among the remains of ancient elephants of bones with sharp marks of toolswhich were used to work and strip the animals once they were killed.

Gomphotheres are an extinct species of elephant relatives that lived in South America until about 12,000 years ago, when disappear from the record across the continentcoinciding with human colonization and dispersal in that part of the world.

They could weigh more than 4 tons and reach 3 meters in height, and were the largest terrestrial mammals that inhabited that place and that time.

The recovery, conservation and restoration work of the remains of large elephants was coordinated by the IPHES Restoration Unit, which currently operates at the sites of the Spanish Sierra de Atapuerca.

The Taguatagua 3 site shows how this species was systematically exploited at the arrival of early humans, which provides data to the debate on whether or not humans caused the extinction of these animals in South America.

In the excavation work he participated in international team of more than 20 peopleconnected to universities and high-performance research centers in archeology and paleontology.

In addition to archaeologists and paleontologists who specialize in recovering large fossil remains, they had some geology specialists and in obtaining molecular series, both for dating deposits and sedimentary remains, and for climatic and environmental characterisation.