Ancient humans literally ate all the giant sloths and armadillos

Ancient people in South America actively hunted extinct Ice Age giants - such as giant sloths and armadillos - which probably played a key role in the extinction of these species.

An international team of archaeologists reached this conclusion after studying animal remains at 20 ancient sites in present-day Argentina, Chile and Uruguay. The results are published in the journal Science Advances.

Until now, the main hypothesis was that the disappearance of megafauna was associated with climate change.

However, the new study refutes this: more than 80 per cent of the bones found at most of the studied sites belonged to extinct large mammals that weighed more than 44 kilograms. Scientists also found many traces of cutting on the bones - indicating that it was humans who killed these animals for food.

The researchers paid special attention to 15 stands, where the bones of large animals prevailed. According to the authors, the hunters did not just eat everything, but purposefully chose the largest and most calorific victims.

"We used a model to estimate the 'energy value of prey' and found that megafauna provided the greatest return for the effort expended," the study says.

These findings challenge the common view that humans played a minor role in the extinction of prehistoric giants. On the contrary, scientists believe it was overhunting that may have been a critical factor in the extinction of species such as macraucheniae, giant sloths and armadillos glyptodonts.

After the extinction of megafauna, the diets of ancient humans became more diverse - they began to hunt smaller animals. However, this transition only occurred after the giants disappeared, further supporting the theory that hunters put too much pressure on large animal populations.

"Our results bring people back to the centre of the debate about the causes of megafauna extinction. We have shown that it was not random encounters with large animals, but systematic hunting of them," said the authors of the study.