from the could-have-used-trunkquilizer-darts dept.
This past weekend, archaeologists uncovered a pair of 15,000 year old artificial Mammoth Traps near Mexico City.
Early settlers of the Mexico Basin subdued giant mammoths by digging out deep, wide trenches and then driving the animals into the pits, according to a press release issued by Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH). Scientists with INAH worked at these pits for the past 10 months, pulling out over 800 mammoth bones, some of which exhibited signs of hunting and possibly ritualistic rearrangement.
Two mammoth pits, and possibly a third, were found at the Tultepec II site, which is around 40 kilometers (25 miles) north of Mexico City.
According to INAH archaeologist and team leader Córdoba Barradas,
This is the first recorded use of pitfalls to capture mammoths—a strategy known to have been employed by African hunters to trap elephants, as described in a 2018 paper published in the science journal Quaternary
Barradas and his colleagues state that there is evidence the paleolithic site was in use for over 500 years and there is likely more to be uncovered in the area.
There is a particular mystery, he said, over why the haul only includes shoulder blades from the right side. "The left shoulder blades are missing – why?" he asked.
Bones from a camel and horse were also found at the site (these species later became extinct in the Americas.)
Also at The Guardian
(Score: 3, Funny) by Gaaark on Sunday November 10 2019, @04:53PM (1 child)
Córdoba Barradas Nikto
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 10 2019, @05:01PM
It's a Trap!
(Score: 0, Troll) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday November 10 2019, @04:54PM (1 child)
Those remains aren't those of mammoths, they're those of Mexican women who hit the age of 30.
(Score: 1) by RandomFactor on Sunday November 10 2019, @05:23PM
https://i.imgur.com/S3nbHxK.png [imgur.com]
В «Правде» нет известий, в «Известиях» нет правды
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 10 2019, @05:01PM (1 child)
The burrito bellgrande pit.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 10 2019, @06:05PM
It was the first Taco Bell franchise.
(Score: 0, Offtopic) by khallow on Sunday November 10 2019, @05:04PM (3 children)
(Score: 1) by RandomFactor on Sunday November 10 2019, @05:17PM
if by 'climate' you mean 'raining spears' then sure it was!
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(Score: 3, Touché) by Runaway1956 on Sunday November 10 2019, @05:44PM
Not only raining spears, but slippery slopes and precipitous falls were a part of the climate.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 10 2019, @09:52PM
Hardly debatable considering the Siberian tusks exports to China been estimated to be 50-100 tons annually for decades.
Contact with humans during the Holocene is the confirmed cause for all recent megafauna extinctions, Elephantidae included. So, with human spread having to do with climate change and unless some really unusual survivor's bias is happening here...
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/04/in-a-few-centuries-cows-could-be-the-largest-land-animals-left/558323/ [theatlantic.com]
(Score: 5, Funny) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday November 10 2019, @05:22PM (1 child)
Oh come on, there's no way that was a 15,000 year old mammoth trap. You don't need a trap for 15,000 year old mammoths; you just need a shovel or a pick axe to get them out of whatever they're entombed in. Our ancestors might not have been as technologically advanced as we are today but they weren't colossally stupid either.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 10 2019, @05:42PM
So, they hadn't invented the DNC yet? What about the World Socialist Party?
(Score: 0, Offtopic) by khallow on Sunday November 10 2019, @06:55PM (2 children)
(Score: 1) by RandomFactor on Sunday November 10 2019, @08:10PM
Toe fungus is already eukaryotic and multicellular, so is already past the 600 million year ago mark.
So, yah, not out of the question at all.
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(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 10 2019, @08:41PM
It already has. Intelligence as well, higher than yours actually, as it doesn't post comments in the wrong story.