National Park Service, White Sands National Monument, P.O. Box 1086, Holloman Air Force Base, NM 88330, USA.
Department of Classics, Tree-ring Laboratory, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853-3201, USA.
Sci Adv. 2018 Apr 25;4(4):eaar7621. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aar7621. eCollection 2018 Apr.
Predator-prey interactions revealed by vertebrate trace fossils are extremely rare. We present footprint evidence from White Sands National Monument in New Mexico for the association of sloth and human trackways. Geologically, the sloth and human trackways were made contemporaneously, and the sloth trackways show evidence of evasion and defensive behavior when associated with human tracks. Behavioral inferences from these trackways indicate prey selection and suggest that humans were harassing, stalking, and/or hunting the now-extinct giant ground sloth in the terminal Pleistocene.
脊椎动物痕迹化石中揭示的捕食者-被捕食者相互作用极为罕见。我们展示了来自新墨西哥州白沙国家公园的足迹证据，证明了树懒和人类足迹的关联。从地质学角度来看，树懒和人类足迹是同时形成的，而当树懒足迹与人类足迹相关联时，它们表现出逃避和防御行为的证据。这些足迹的行为推断表明了猎物的选择，并暗示人类在更新世末期正在骚扰、追踪和/或猎捕现已灭绝的巨型地懒。
