Editing Megatherium (section)

== Relationship with humans and extinction ==
During the [[Late Pleistocene]], six species of ''Megatherium'' were present in South America, including ''M. americanum'' in the Pampas and adjacent regions, and the 5 species of ''Pseudomegatherium'' in the vicinity of the Andes.''<ref name=":10" />''

The youngest unambiguous dates for ''Megatherium'' are from the end of the Late Pleistocene. Supposed early Holocene dates obtained for ''Megatherium americanum'' and other Pampas megafauna have been questioned, with suggestions that they are likely due to [[Humic substance|humic acid]] contamination of the [[collagen]] used to [[radiocarbon date]] the bones.<ref name="Politis-2019" /> ''Megatherium'' disappeared simultaneously along with the vast majority (>80%) of other large ([[megafauna]]l) South American mammals, as part of the [[Late Pleistocene extinctions|end-Pleistocene extinction event]].<ref>{{cite journal |first1=Anthony D. |last1=Barnosky |first2=Paul L. |last2=Koch |first3=Robert S. |last3=Feranec |first4=Scott L. |last4=Wing |first5=Alan B. |last5=Shabel |year=2004 |title=Assessing the Causes of Late Pleistocene Extinctions on the Continents |journal=Science |volume=306 |issue=5693 |pages=70–75 |bibcode=2004Sci...306...70B |citeseerx=10.1.1.574.332 |doi=10.1126/science.1101476 |pmid=15459379 |s2cid=36156087}}</ref> The use of bioclimatic envelope modeling indicates that the area of suitable habitat for ''Megatherium'' had shrunk and become fragmented by the mid-Holocene. While this alone would not likely have caused its extinction, it has been cited as a possible contributing factor.<ref>{{Cite journal|author=Lima-Ribeiro, Matheus Souza|title=Potential Suitable Areas of Giant Ground Sloths Dropped Before its Extinction in South America: the Evidences from Bioclimatic Envelope Modeling.|journal= Natureza & Conservação |volume=10 |issue=2|date = December 2012|pages= 145–151|doi=10.4322/natcon.2012.022|display-authors=etal|doi-access=free}}</ref>

Towards the end of the Late Pleistocene, [[Peopling of the Americas|humans first arrived in the Americas]], with some of the earliest evidence of humans in South America being the [[Monte Verde|Monte Verde II]] site in Chile, dating to around 14,500 years [[Before Present]] (~12,500 BC).<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Dillehay |first1=Tom D. |last2=Pino |first2=Mario |last3=Ocampo |first3=Carlos |date=2021-01-02 |title=Comments on Archaeological Remains at the Monte Verde Site Complex, Chile |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/20555563.2020.1762399 |journal=PaleoAmerica |language=en |volume=7 |issue=1 |pages=8–13 |doi=10.1080/20555563.2020.1762399 |s2cid=224935851 |issn=2055-5563}}</ref> The extinction interval of ''Megatherium'' and other megafauna coincides with the appearance and abundance of [[Fishtail projectile point|Fishtail point]]s, which are suggested to have been used to hunt megafauna, across the Pampas region and South America more broadly.<ref name="Prates-2021">{{Cite journal |last1=Prates |first1=Luciano |last2=Perez |first2=S. Ivan |date=2021-04-12 |title=Late Pleistocene South American megafaunal extinctions associated with rise of Fishtail points and human population |journal=Nature Communications |language=en |volume=12 |issue=1 |page=2175 |doi=10.1038/s41467-021-22506-4 |issn=2041-1723 |pmc=8041891 |pmid=33846353|bibcode=2021NatCo..12.2175P }}</ref> At the Paso Otero 5 site in the Pampas of northeast Argentina, Fishtail points are associated with burned bones of ''Megatherium americanum'' and other extinct megafauna. The bones appear to have been deliberately burned as a source of fuel. Due to the poor preservation of the bones there is no clear evidence of human modification.<ref>G. Martínez, M. A. Gutiérrez, [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/255171250_Paso_Otero_5_a_summary_of_the_interdisciplinary_lines_of_evidence_for_reconstructing_early_human_occupation_and_paleoenvironment_in_the_Pampean_region_Argentina Paso Otero 5: A summary of the interdisciplinary lines of evidence for reconstructing early human occupation and paleoenvironment in the Pampean region, Argentina], in ''Peuplements et Préhistoire de l’Amérique'', D. Vialou, Ed. (Muséum National d’ Histoire Naturelle. Departement de Prehistoire, U.M.R, Paris, 2011), pp. 271–284.</ref>

There is evidence for the butchery of ''Megatherium'' by humans. Two ''M. americanum'' bones, an [[Ulnar nerve|ulna]]<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Chichkoyan |first1=Karina V. |last2=Martínez-Navarro |first2=Bienvenido |last3=Moigne |first3=Anne-Marie |last4=Belinchón |first4=Margarita |last5=Lanata |first5=José L. |date=June 2017 |title=The exploitation of megafauna during the earliest peopling of the Americas: An examination of nineteenth-century fossil collections |journal=Comptes Rendus Palevol |language=en |volume=16 |issue=4 |pages=440–451 |doi=10.1016/j.crpv.2016.11.003 |bibcode=2017CRPal..16..440C |doi-access=free}}</ref> and an [[Atlas (anatomy)|atlas vertebra]],<ref name="Autoecologia Humana del Quaternari Departament d'Història i Història de l'Art Universitat Rovira i Virgili-2017">{{Cite book|last1=Martínez-Navarro |first1=B. |last2=Chichkoyan |first2=K.V. |last3=Moigne |first3=A.-M. |last4=Cioppi |first4=E. |last5=Belinchón |first5=M. |last6=Lanata |first6=J.L. |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/316562027 |title=Description and interpretation of a Megatherium americanum atlas with evidence of human intervention |date=2017 |publisher=Rivista Italiana di Paleontologia e Stratigrafia |oclc=1084743779}}</ref> from separate collections, bear cut marks suggestive of butchery, with the latter suggested to represent an attempt to exploit the contents of the head.<ref name="Autoecologia Humana del Quaternari Departament d'Història i Història de l'Art Universitat Rovira i Virgili-2017" /> A [[kill site]] dating to around 12,600 years Before Present (BP), is known from Campo Laborde in the Pampas in Argentina, where a single individual of ''M. americanum'' was slaughtered and butchered at the edge of a swamp, which is the only confirmed giant ground-sloth kill site in the Americas. At the site several stone tools were present, including the fragment of a projectile point.<ref name="Politis-2019" /> Another possible kill site is Arroyo Seco 2 near [[Tres Arroyos]] in the Pampas in Argentina, where ''M. americanum'' bones amongst those of other megafauna were found associated with human artifacts dating to approximately 14,782–11,142 cal yr BP.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Bampi |first1=Hugo |last2=Barberi |first2=Maira |last3=Lima-Ribeiro |first3=Matheus S. |date=December 2022 |title=Megafauna kill sites in South America: A critical review |url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0277379122004826 |journal=Quaternary Science Reviews |language=en |volume=298 |pages=107851 |doi=10.1016/j.quascirev.2022.107851|bibcode=2022QSRv..29807851B |s2cid=253876769 }}</ref> This hunting may have been a factor in its extinction.<ref name="Prates-2021" />