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Mammoth carcass was scavenged by ancient humans and sabre-toothed cats

A southern mammoth skeleton found in Spain bears cut marks from stone tools and bite marks from carnivore teeth, suggesting that both hominins and felids feasted on its meat

By Jeanne Timmons

18 March 2024

Illustration of ancient humans scavenging a mammoth carcass

Jesús Gamarra

A mammoth that died about 1.2 million years ago became a meal for both ancient humans and sabre-toothed cats, an analysis of its bones has revealed.

Southern mammoths (Mammuthus meridionalis) were larger than today’s elephants and roamed Eurasia during the Pleistocene.

Read more

How did Paranthropus, the last of the ape-people, survive for so long?

The skeleton is one of only a handful throughout the world with evidence of cut marks that old. It was excavated about 20 years ago from a fossil-rich…

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