For decades, archaeologists have debated whether these early Paleoindians were megafauna specialists, focused on hunting massive animals, or dietary generalists who ate a broad mix of small game, fish, plants, and shellfish depending on their local environment.
Over the past ten years, many scientists had drifted toward the generalist view.
However, a new study led by the University of Alaska Fairbanks pushes back hard against that trend.
“One of two competing ideas is dietary generalization: exploiting a wide variety of resources that would differ based on region,” explained University of Alaska Fairbanks Professor Ben Potter.
“The other is megafaunal specialization: focusing on just a few large-bodied prey.”
In the study, the researchers examined 50 archaeological sites across three regions: Eastern Beringia (ancient Alaska, roughly 14,000 to 13,300 years ago), the Clovis culture of North America (about 13,400 to 12,800 years ago), and the Fishtail Projectile Point culture of South America (roughly 12,900 to 11,600 years ago).
Together, these represent the earliest continent-spanning human societies in the western hemisphere.
Analyzing measures such as species abundance, minimum number of individuals, and edible biomass, the scientists found that megafauna accounted for 83% to 88% of the meat and fat these groups likely consumed.
Woolly mammoths dominated diets in Beringia, Columbian mammoths in North America, and giant ground sloths and gomphotheres in South America.
Smaller animals were present at many sites but contributed almost nothing nutritionally.
“The test of dietary specialization isn’t just how many of a given animal you find at an ancient campsite,” Professor Potter said.
“It’s what the record looks like relative to natural abundance. If early people were dietary generalists, you’d expect to find the most common animals would be more common in peoples’ campsites.”
“Animals like mammoths and ground sloths, which were actually quite rare in the landscape, completely dominate the archaeological record.”
“Rabbits and mice, which would have been everywhere, barely register.”
The authors also point to independent evidence: a chemical analysis of a Clovis-era child called Anzick-1 found that roughly 96% of his mother’s protein came from megafauna, mostly mammoth.
Beyond diet, these early groups shared other hallmarks of specialized hunters: highly efficient, well-maintained toolkits carried over long distances; extremely mobile, far-ranging lifestyles instead of settled home territories; and little to no evidence of plant-processing tools like grinding stones.
Source: Sci.News
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