Clovis People Hunted Canada’s Camels

In a southwestern corner of what is now Alberta, Canada, camels once roamed. They went extinct at the end the last Ice Age, and their disappearance has generally been attributed to changes in climate and vegetation. But new research suggests that human predators may have contributed to the Western camel’s (Camelops hesternus) demise. A paper in American Antiquity shows that, at a time when ice sheets still covered most of northern Canada, Clovis people on the Western plains were hunting camel for food.

“Our evidence shows that we have to consider that humans may have had some role in their extinction,” said Brian Kooyman, an archeologist at the University of Calgary, and the paper’s lead author.

The study makes the first direct association between Clovis projectile points, stone tools and the remains of a butchered camel. The remains, which radiocarbon dating showed to be about 13,000 years old, were found preserved in windblown sand and silts at Wally’s Beach, an archeological site 108 miles south of Calgary.

“Tracks indicate that [after the horse] they were the second-most common animal at Wally’s Beach and a common part of the fauna,” said Len Hills, a geoscientist at the University of Calgary and collaborator on the study. “Abundant camel tracks at the site clearly show a substantial population.”
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Smithsonianmag

Referencia: Late Pleistocene Western Camel (Camelops Hesternus) Hunting in Southwestern Canada. Brian Kooyman, L.V. Hills, Shayne Tolman, and Paul McNeil. AMERICAN ANTIQUITY, VOLUME 77, NUMBER 1, JANUARY 2012
Resumen: Las extinciones de grandes mamíferos del Pleistoceno Tarde en América del Norte se han atribuido a una serie de factores o la combinación de factores, principalmente el cambio climático y la caza hecha por los seres humanos, pero la importancia relativa de estos factores siguen siendo muy debatido. Cazadores del período Clovis explotaron especies como mamut, pero muchas especies ahora extintas como los camellos no fueron aparentemente cazados. La evidencia arqueológica en el sitio de Wally's Beach en el sur de Canadá, incluidas las herramientas de piedra y huesos modificados por seres humanos, proporcionan la primera evidencia de que la gente de Clovis cazaba camellos en América del Norte. Arqueólogos generalmente desestiman la caza como un contribuyente significativo a la extinción del Pleistoceno en América del Norte, pero Wally’s Beach demuestra que la caza por seres humanos estaba más extendida de lo previsto, y debemos seguir examinando la caza como un factor en la extinción del Pleistoceno.