Late Pleistocene Megafauna in the Archaeological Record of the Greater Southwest

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Human Interactions with Extinct Fauna" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The record of extinct fauna from Terminal Pleistocene archaeological sites in the Southwest is stereotypically characterized as mammoth from kill sites. Mammoth kills certainly are well known from the region, including the highest concentration of such sites anywhere in the Americas, but the remains of other extinct megafauna with evidence for human association also are documented. Most of the sites are in Arizona and most associated with Clovis occupations. Six Clovis kill sites with mammoth (Mammuthus columbi) are known from southeast Arizona. One site also includes a Bison antiquus kill and another yielded burned bone of black bear (Ursus americanus) from a hearth. A post-Clovis kill site with extinct bison is also known. The only other clear in situ evidence for a bison kill is in central New Mexico, although both Folsom and Allen artifact assemblages from surface contexts in the same region produced fragments of bison enamel. Several human/extinct fauna associations in the Southwest are the first for North America. In northern Sonora, Mexico, Clovis artifacts were found in association with Gomphothere (Cuvieronius), and in New Mexico at White Sands National Monument, human tracks are documented in association with trackways produced by sloths (either Nothrotheriops or Paramylodon).

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Human Interactions with Extinct Fauna   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 23677