An anthropogenic modification in an Eremotherium tooth from northeastern Brazil

Abstract

In South America, the relationship of humans and megafauna remains unknown and still under review. This paper describes a piece of a giant sloth tooth showing anthropogenic marks. This finding leads to two hypotheses: (1) Eremotherium laurillardi lived until the beginning of the Holocene, and interacted with humans; or, (2) humans arrived in South America earlier than is accepted today, about 15,000 BP. The present researchers continue to explore new information in this area to test the above hypotheses.