News Paleontology

Giant camel-like creatures lived thousands of years longer than once thought

Carbon-dating teeth suggests two large mammal species roamed northeastern Brazil 3,500 years ago

An illustration of large camel-like mammals from thousands of years ago that roamed in what is now Brazil.

In what is now northeastern Brazil, large mammals (some illustrated) may have roamed as recently as 3,500 years ago.

Júlia d’Oliveira

By Meghie Rodrigues

Some species of megafauna might have existed for much longer than the paleontological canon suggests.

Current thinking says that ancient, large animals such as ground sloths went extinct about 11,000 years ago — at the beginning of the Holocene, the current geologic epoch.