Toward the end of the Pleistocene, the world experienced a mass extinction of megafauna. In North America these included its proboscideans—the mammoths and mastodons. Researchers in conservation biology, paleontology, and archaeology have debated the role played by human predation in these extinctions. They point to traces of human butchery, such as cut marks and other bone surface modifications (BSM), as evidence of human-animal interactions—including predation and scavenging, between early Americans and proboscideans. However, others have challenged the validity of the butchery evidence observed on several proboscidean assemblages, largely due to questions of qualitative determination of the agent responsible for creating BSM. This study employs a statistical technique that relies on three-dimensional (3D) imaging data and 3D geometric morphometrics to determine the origin of the BSM observed on the skeletal remains of the Bowser Road mastodon (BR mastodon), excavated in Middletown, New York. These techniques have been shown to have high accuracy in identifying and distinguishing among different types of BSM. To better characterize the BSM on the BR mastodon, we compared them quantitatively to experimental BSM resulting from a stone tool chopping experiment using “Arnold,” the force-calibrated chopper. This study suggests that BSM on the BR mastodon are not consistent with the BSM generated by the experimental chopper. Future controlled experiments will compare other types of BSM to those on BR. This research contributes to continued efforts to decrease the uncertainty surrounding human-megafauna associations at the level of the archaeological site and faunal assemblage—specifically that of the BR mastodon assemblage. Consequently, we also contribute to the dialogue surrounding the character of the human-animal interactions between early Americans and Late Pleistocene megafauna, and the role of human foraging behavior in the latter’s extinction.

在更新世末期，世界经历了巨型动物的大规模灭绝。在北美，这些包括长鼻类动物——猛犸象和乳齿象。保护生物学、古生物学和考古学的研究人员一直在争论人类捕食在这些灭绝中所起的作用。他们指出人类屠杀的痕迹，例如切割痕迹和其他骨表面修饰 (BSM)，作为人类与动物相互作用的证据，包括早期美洲人和长鼻类动物之间的捕食和清除。然而，其他人质疑在几个长鼻类群落中观察到的屠杀证据的有效性，这主要是由于对负责创建 BSM 的代理的定性确定问题。这项研究采用了一种统计技术，该技术依赖于三维 (3D) 成像数据和 3D 几何形态测量学，以确定在纽约米德尔敦出土的 Bowser Road 乳齿象 (BR mastodon) 骨骼残骸上观察到的 BSM 的起源。这些技术已被证明在识别和区分不同类型的 BSM 方面具有很高的准确性。为了更好地表征 BR 乳齿象上的 BSM，我们将它们与实验性 BSM 进行了定量比较，实验性 BSM 是使用“Arnold”（力校准切碎器）进行的石器切碎实验产生的。该研究表明 BR 乳齿象上的 BSM 与实验斩波器产生的 BSM 不一致。未来的对照实验会将其他类型的 BSM 与 BR 上的进行比较。这项研究有助于在考古遗址和动物群——特别是 BR 乳齿象群——的水平上，继续努力减少围绕人类-巨型动物群落的不确定性。因此，我们还为围绕早期美国人和晚更新世巨型动物之间的人与动物相互作用特征以及人类觅食行为在后者灭绝中的作用的对话做出了贡献。