Patagonia, Rosetta Stone death of giant species in the Ice Age – Terra Peru

The giant species of the Ice Age, as the bear cut face and cat sabertooth, which roamed the plains of Patagonia disappeared into a “perfect storm” formed by rapid global warming and the presence human beings, according to a new study.

An investigation by the Center for DNA-Old (ACAD) of Australia’s University of Adelaide published today in Science Advance reveals that only when the weather became warmer, long after the first humans came to Patagonia, there was the sudden death of the megafauna.

“Patagonia has proved to be the Rosetta Stone” to understand that period, said the director of ACAD and head of the study Alan Cooper.

The study reveals the interaction between human impact and climate change about 12,300 million years ago, a time that human action combined with environmental changes led to the collapse, in a few hundred years, the ecosystem in which they lived these large animals.

The team of researchers from the University of Magallanes in Chilean Patagonia; Boulder Colorado US and Australian New South Wales, studied the ancient DNA extracted from bones and teeth with radiocarbon dating were found in several caves of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego.

Remains of species such as the South American horse, the giant jaguar or bear cut face, with a ton of weight was the largest carnivorous mammal land, they had been found so very diffuse in Patagonia, but apparently disappeared shortly after the arrival of humans to these lands.

The guanaco and vicuna, ancestors of today’s llama and alpaca are the only species that survive from that time, although almost became extinct.

“The ancient genetic data show that only the late arrival to the Patagonia of a population of guanacos from the north except the species,” said Jessica Metcalf, University of Colorado Boulder.

The pattern of rapid human colonization across the Americas coinciding with time temperatures strong contrasts allowed researchers to unravel the relative impact of the arrival of humans and change climate.

They used to study the bones obtained near the Fell (Chilean Patagonia) cave where in 1936 evidence that humans were hunters of megafauna of the Ice Age were found .

The purpose of using those bones was, according to Fabiana Martin of the University of Magallanes, to know the “key role played climate and warming humans in the extinction of megafauna”.