Evidence from the Fin del Mundo, an archaeological site in Sonora, northwestern Mexico, indicates that Clovis – the earliest widespread group of hunter-gatherers to inhabit North America – hunted and ate elephant-like animals called gomphotheres.
This image shows a reconstruction of the gomphothere Cuvieronius sp. Image credit: Sergio de la Rosa.
Gomphotheres were a diverse group of extinct elephant-like animals. They were smaller than mammoths – about the same size as modern elephants.
These animals once were widespread in North America, but until now they seemed to have disappeared from the fossil record long before humans arrived in North America, which happened about 13,500 years ago.
“Although humans were known to have hunted gomphotheres in Central America and South America, this is the first time a human-gomphothere connection has been made in North America,” explained Prof Vance Holliday of the University of Arizona, a co-author of the paper published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The skeletal remains of a gomphothere Cuvieronius sp. were unearthed at the Fin del Mundo in 2007-2008.
“This is the first archaeological gomphothere found in North America, and it’s the only one known,” Prof Holliday said.
Clovis points found at the archaeological site of Fin del Mundo in Sonora, northwestern Mexico. Image credit: Guadalupe Sanchez.
The 13,400-year-old gomphothere remains weren’t all Prof Holliday and her colleagues unearthed at the site.
The archaeologists also uncovered numerous Clovis artifacts, including signature Clovis projectile points, or spear tips, as well as cutting tools and flint flakes from stone tool-making.
Radiocarbon dating puts the Fin del Mundo site at about 13,400 years old, making it one of the two oldest known Clovis sites in North America; the other is the Aubrey Clovis site in north Texas.
The position and proximity of Clovis weapon fragments relative to the gomphothere bones at the site suggest that humans did in fact kill the animal there.
Of the seven Clovis points found, four were in place among the bones, including one with bone and teeth fragments above and below. The other three points had clearly eroded away from the bone bed and were found scattered nearby.
“This is the first Clovis gomphothere, it’s the first archaeological gomphothere found in North America, it’s the first evidence that people were hunting gomphotheres in North America, and it adds another item to the Clovis menu,” Prof Holliday concluded.
_____
Guadalupe Sancheza et al. Human (Clovis)–gomphothere (Cuvieronius sp.) association ∼13,390 calibrated yBP in Sonora, Mexico. PNAS, published online July 14, 2014; doi: 10.1073/pnas.1404546111
