Paleoanthropologists believe that the Columbian mammoth (mammoth colombi) are the largest contributor to the diet of the Clovis people, the earliest widespread hunter-gatherer group inhabiting North America, followed by elk and bison/camels, but the contribution of small mammals is There were very few.

The Clovis people lived in North America about 13,000 years ago.

During that time, giant animals such as mammoths lived in both northern Asia and the Americas.

Because they traveled long distances, they became a reliable source of fat and protein for highly mobile humans.

Some researchers argue that the Clovisians were some degree of megafauna experts, with a particular focus on mammoths, while others argue that such adaptations were not viable and therefore They argue that Clovisians were extensive foragers, likely incorporating small amounts of food into their diets on a regular basis. Prey, plants, and perhaps fish.

“Focusing on mammoths helps explain how the Clovis people spread from across North America to South America in just a few hundred years,” said Dr. James Chatters, a researcher at McMaster University. said.

“What's surprising to me is that this corroborates a lot of the data from other sites,” said Ben Potter, a professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

“For example, the animal parts left at the Clovis site are dominated by megafauna, and the firing points are large ones attached to darts, which were effective long-range weapons.”

In the new study, Dr Chatters, Professor Potter and their colleagues used stable isotope analysis to investigate the effects of 18-month-old children found at the 13,000-year-old Clovis site in Anzick, Montana, USA. I modeled the meal. state.

Their findings support the hypothesis that the Clovis people specialized in hunting large animals, rather than primarily foraging on small animals and plants.

Professor Potter said: “Mammoth hunting provided a flexible way of life.”

“This allowed the Clovis people to move to new areas without relying on smaller, localized prey that could vary widely from region to region.”

“This mobility is consistent with what we are seeing with Clovis technology and payment patterns.”

“They were very mobile. They transported resources such as toolstone over hundreds of miles.”

“Isotopes provide a chemical fingerprint of a consumer's diet, and can be compared to the isotopes of potential dietary items to determine the proportional contributions of different dietary items,” said Dr. Matt Wooler of the University of Alaska Fairbanks. It can be estimated.”

The researchers compared the mothers' stable isotope fingerprints with those obtained from different food sources from the same time and region.

They found that about 40% of her diet came from mammoths, with other large animals such as elk and bison making up the rest.

Although small mammals were sometimes considered an important food source, they played a very minor role in her diet.

Finally, the scientists compared the mother's diet to that of other omnivores and carnivores from the same period, including American lions, bears, and wolves.

The mother's diet was most similar to that of the scimitar cat, a mammoth specialist.

The discovery also suggests that early humans may have contributed to the extinction of Ice Age megafauna, especially as environmental changes reduced their habitat.

“If the climate is changing in a way that reduces suitable habitat for some of these megafauna, they potentially become more susceptible to human predation. These people are highly capable. He was a great hunter,” Professor Potter said.

“It was a combination of a very sophisticated hunting culture that responded to a simple, large animal group under environmental stress, and techniques honed over 10,000 years in Eurasia,” Dr Chatters said.

of the team result Published in today's diary scientific progress.

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James C. Chatters others. 2024. Mammoths featured heavily in the diet of western Clovis. scientific progress 10(49);doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adr3814