Footprints preserve terminal Pleistocene hunt? Human-sloth interactions in North America.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Bustos D
PROVIDER: S-EPMC5916513 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Apr
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Publications
Footprints preserve terminal Pleistocene hunt? Human-sloth interactions in North America.
Bustos David D Jakeway Jackson J Urban Tommy M TM Holliday Vance T VT Fenerty Brendan B Raichlen David A DA Budka Marcin M Reynolds Sally C SC Allen Bruce D BD Love David W DW Santucci Vincent L VL Odess Daniel D Willey Patrick P McDonald H Gregory HG Bennett Matthew R MR
Science advances 20180425 4
Predator-prey interactions revealed by vertebrate trace fossils are extremely rare. We present footprint evidence from White Sands National Monument in New Mexico for the association of sloth and human trackways. Geologically, the sloth and human trackways were made contemporaneously, and the sloth trackways show evidence of evasion and defensive behavior when associated with human tracks. Behavioral inferences from these trackways indicate prey selection and suggest that humans were harassing, ...[more]
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