Ever pondered the timeline of megafauna? You’re not alone.

Recent research is flipping the script on the widely accepted narrative that mammalian megafauna vanished at the dawn of the Holocene, approximately 11,700 years ago.

For instance, fossil evidence indicates that woolly mammoths may have still been wandering the Earth as recently as 4,000 years ago. Additionally, exciting new findings from South America reveal that colossal sloths and camel-like creatures persisted until around 3,500 years ago.

This emerging evidence not only prompts a reevaluation of the causes behind the most recent extinctions of large animals but also emphasizes that this phenomenon was far from uniform across the globe.

A team led by geologist Fábio Henrique Cortes Faria at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, conducted radiocarbon dating on various megafauna specimens unearthed in the region. To their astonishment, they discovered that some of these species, including the extinct llama Palaeolama major and the camel-like Xenorhinotherium bahiense, were significantly younger than previously assumed.

These revelations imply that megafauna may have coexisted with humans in South America for a much longer duration than earlier believed, challenging existing theories that link these extinctions to human hunting practices or environmental shifts.

Instead of a swift extinction event, the decline of megafauna in South America could have been a slow, regionally variable process. This research provides valuable insights into the intricate dynamics that contributed to the decline of Pleistocene mammals over the ages.

It appears that the narrative surrounding megafauna and their extinction is more complex and captivating than we previously considered. The study, published in the Journal of South American Earth Sciences, paves the way for deeper exploration into the history of these remarkable creatures.