Battling behemoths
It is still not completely clear what caused the Quaternary extinction event that led to the eradication of all prehistoric megafauna around 10,000 years ago. However, it’s safe to say that human hunting played its part. But how did our comparatively small ancestors go toe-to-claw with prehistoric giants? Confronting these giants armed with massive claws and tusks presented dangers to both man and beast. Earlier this year, palaeontologists discovered a set of fossilised ground sloth tracks that appeared to have a collection of human footprints stalking it. Though no remains of a successful hunt where found near the tracks, it seems that our ancestors may have hunted by ambushing their prey rather than tackling it head-on.