The first humans who spread across North America during the last Ice Age put mammoths at the top of their menu, according to scientists who secured the first direct evidence of the diet of these ancient people.
The researchers deciphered the diet of a woman who lived roughly 12,800 years ago based on chemical clues in the bones of her son, whose remains were found in southern Montana. Because the 18-month-old was still nursing at the time of death, his bones bore the chemical fingerprints of his mother's diet, passed along through her milk.
They discovered that her diet was mostly meat from megafauna — the largest animals in an ecosystem — with an emphasis on mammoths. Megafauna made up about 96% of her diet, with mammoths comprising about 40%, followed by elk, bison, camels and horses, and a negligible contribution from small mammals and plants.
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