FOUR-ton mega-sloths with flesh-rendering claws lived alongside humans for 10,000 years, new research has found.
The 20ft tall meat eating beasts were thought to have been wiped out quickly when humans made it to the Americas.
But new research has found the sloth’s bones had been turned into jewellery by humans that lived alongside them 27,000 years ago.
One penny-sized sloth fossil appears to be deliberately polished and has a hole at one end.
It’s one of a number similar artefacts discovered in Santa Elina, modern-day Brazil, that are roughly 27,000 years old.
That’s a whopping 10,000 years earlier than humans were thought to have first arrived in the Americas.
That means humans would have lived alongside the giant sloths, as well as other massive animals like mastodons, sabre-toothed tigers, and dire wolves, for thousands of years.
Giant sloths once lived from Alaska to Argentina and some species had bony structures on their backs – a bit like the plates of modern armadillos – that may have been used to make decorations.
Originally researchers wondered if the craftsmen were working on already old fossils.
But University of Sao Paulo researcher Mírian Pacheco found ancient people were carving “fresh bones” shortly after the animals died.
She said: “We believe it was intentionally altered and used by ancient people as jewelry or adornment.”
Pacheco is able to date when the chemical change occurs in the bone – thus when humans would have likely carved them.
She said: “We found that the osteoderms were carved before the fossilization process… in fresh bones”.
The sloth bones were found at what was believed to be a human campsite.
Scientists know the first humans emerged in Africa, then moved into Europe and Asia, before finally making their way to the Americas.
But questions remain about when exactly they made the leap to the new world.
Humans had previously been thought to have arrived in the Americas sometime around 11,000 and 13,000 years after a find in New Mexico.
That date coincides with the end of the last ice age – when people could have crossed the Bering land bridge from Asia into North America.
The fossil record also shows the widespread decline of megafauna – giant animals – starting around the same time.
Briana Pobiner, paleoanthropologist, said that story now “doesn’t really work so well anymore.”
Richard Fariña, a paleontologist at the University of the Republic in Montevideo, said anything thought to be older than 15,000 years drew intense scrutiny.
He said: “But really compelling evidence from more and more older sites keeps coming to light.”
