Humans were in South America at least 25,000 years ago, giant sloth bone pendants reveal

A drawing showing a dead giant ground sloth with cut marks. We see two human hands crafting the sloth's bone.

The date that humans arrived in South America has been pushed back to at least 25,000 years ago, based on an unlikely source: bones from an extinct giant ground sloth that were crafted into pendants by ancient people.

Discovered in the Santa Elina rock shelter in central Brazil, three sloth osteoderms — bony deposits that form a kind of protective armor over the skin of animals such as armadillos — found near stone tools sported tiny holes that only humans could have made.