Giant armadillo fossil reveals humans were in South America a surprisingly long time ago

More than 20,000 years ago in Argentina, early people in the Americas butchered a giant armadillo-like creature with stone tools, according to a recent study. The discovery, inferred from cut marks on the fossilized remains, suggests that the Americas were settled earlier than initially thought, possibly over 25,000 years ago. The remains belonged to a small species of an extinct type of armadillo called Neosclerocalyptus. The cuts were determined to be made by stone tools and focused on dense areas of the armadillo’s flesh. This finding adds to the debate on when humans first settled in the Americas.