Megafauna was the meat of choice for South American hunters

"The extinction of the Pleistocene megafauna may be people's fault after all, according to a recent study. A team of archaeologists recently examined animal bones at sites dating to the waning years of the last Ice Age. Their results suggest that extinct megafauna like giant sloths, giant armadillos, and elephant-like creatures were on the menu for Pleistocene hunters in South America."

"Archaeologist Luciano Prates of Mexico's National University of La Plata and his colleagues counted the animal bones left behind by ancient people at 20 archaeological sites in modern-day Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay. They compared the number of bones from extinct megafauna (technically, "megafauna" describes any animal over 44 kilograms) to the number of bones from smaller prey. They also tallied the remains of still-living species of megafauna like vicuñas."

"They chose sites that dated back more than 11,600 years, before the last of the now-extinct Ice Age megafauna vanished from the continent. The team only counted bones with clear signs that people had butchered the animal for food, like cut and percussion marks. At 15 of the 20 sites, most of the butchered bones came from now-extinct megafauna; at 13 of those sites, extinct Pleistocene megafauna accounted for more than 80 percent of the total animal bones."

Archaeologists counted butchered animal bones at 20 archaeological sites in Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay dated to more than 11,600 years ago. Bones with cut or percussion marks were included to ensure human processing. The counts compared remains of extinct megafauna, smaller prey, and extant large species such as vicuñas. At 15 sites most butchered bones came from now-extinct megafauna, and at 13 of those sites extinct Pleistocene species comprised over 80 percent of animal remains. These patterns show ancient hunters preferentially targeted giant sloths, giant armadillos, extinct horses, and elephant-like species. Preferential hunting likely contributed to the continental megafaunal extinctions.

Read at Ars Technica