El Fin del Mundo

Gomphothere reconstruction

El Fin del Mundo (Spanish: 'End of the World') is an ancient Pleistocene site in northwestern Sonora, Mexico. It features Clovis culture period occupation dating around 13,390 calibrated years BP. It was discovered during a 2007 survey.

This is the oldest Clovis site in North America. There's also the Aubrey site in Denton County, Texas,[1] which produced a radiocarbon date that is almost identical.[2]

Clovis hunters

In 2011, remains of Gomphothere dating around 13,390 calibrated years BP were found here. This was the first time such an association was found in a northern part of the continent where gomphotheres had been thought to have gone extinct 30,000 years ago.[3] In July 2014, it was announced that the "position and proximity of Clovis weapon fragments relative to the gomphothere bones at the site suggest that humans did in fact kill the two animals there.

Of the seven Clovis points found at the site, four were in place among the bones, including one with bone and teeth fragments above and below. The other three points had clearly eroded away from the bone bed and were found scattered nearby." [4]

Bones of horse and bison, as well as horse teeth were also found at the site.

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Ferring, C. Reid (2001) The Archaeology and Paleoecology of the Aubrey Clovis Site (41DN479) Denton County, Texas. (Center for Environmental Archaeology, Dept. of Geography, Univ. of North Texas, Denton
  2. ↑ Sanchez, Guadalupe, Vance T. Holliday, Edmund P. Gaines, Joaquín Arroyo-Cabrales, Natalia Martínez-Tagüeña, Andrew Kowler, Todd Lange, Gregory W. L. Hodgins, Susan M. Mentzer, and Ismael Sanchez- Morales. Human (Clovis)gomphothere (Cuvieronius sp.) association ~13,390 calibrated yr BP in Sonora, Mexico. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111: 10972-10977 doi:10.1073/pnas.1404546111
  3. ↑ "Finding would reveal contact between humans and gomphotheres in North America", Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, 24 January 2011. Retrieved 26 May 2014.
  4. ↑ "Bones of elephant ancestor unearthed: Meet the gomphothere" Science Daily, 14 July 2014

Bibliography

External links

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