
Mega-Tunnels Dug by South American Megafauna (2017) - vezycash
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/crux/2017/03/28/paleoburrows-south-america/
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de_Selby
>Dating the burrows also remains guesswork at best—animals don’t dig holes
after they go extinct. However, they had to have been dug at least 8,000 to
10,000 years ago, when South America’s giant ground sloths and armadillos
vanished.

Or, when humans came on the scene and 'vanished' them.

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Y_Y
If only early man had worried about zoological diversity and the morality of
eating giant sloth meat.

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de_Selby
It probably had more to do with viewing them as a threat (which they were)
than as food.

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GVIrish
Whether they viewed them as a threat or food, modern humans (i.e. humans with
fully developed hunting skills and weapons) who encountered megafauna that
weren't afraid of them frequently slaughtered them to the point of extinction.

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tomkinstinch
A more detailed description is included in this publication from the author
credited for the first photo:

[http://www.ufrgs.br/paleotocas/Frank_et_al_2012.pdf](http://www.ufrgs.br/paleotocas/Frank_et_al_2012.pdf)

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ufo
I'll take this opportunity to advertise one of my favourite science podcasts,
Fronteiras da Ciência:

[http://www.ufrgs.br/frontdaciencia/](http://www.ufrgs.br/frontdaciencia/)

It is in portuguese, but one of the older episodes from season 5 is a very fun
and informative interview with prof Heinrich about these burrows.

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soneca
Thanks for the recommendation! Added to my player

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BorisMelnik
elon musk needs to hire some of these paleoburrows to finish his jobs - but
seriously this is so interesting.

does anyone know if anyone has casually mapped these out? it would be scary to
explore these, I imagine all types of animals / bears (maybe not as much in
South america) use these caves as their homes.

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ncmncm
Funny how the article entirely ignores huge caves on Africa dug by elephants
mining salt.

They ate the tailings.

Maybe there is only one such cave known, so somehow it doesn't count?

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gadders
I don't know why, but this feels a lot more scarey than seeing dinosaur
footprints. Definitely makes me feel more like "prey".

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pvaldes
Homo sapiens is technically part of the megafauna, so the human miners that
most probably dug this tunnels looking for valuable raw matherials would fit
in this description, yes.

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obituary_latte
Do you for some reason not believe the experts in the article? Or have an
explanation for the claw marks?

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pvaldes
I'm not believing it because. 1) I'm not afraid of the experts. 2) They
obviously are wrong in this case, as you can see if you take a look to the
photos. 3) Yes, I have a better explanation for the marks. One that does not
involve magical tetrapods digging in narrow spaces with unlimited degrees of
rotation in the shoulder.

An expert is somebody that has done any possible mistake in a field. They
commit mistakes all the time. This is just part of the journey and nothing to
be ashamed of.

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codetrotter
I sometimes wonder what is the evolutionary advantage of being as sure about
ourselves and dismissive of others like a lot of us humans are.

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felipemnoa
Reminds me of the quote by Charles Bukowski "The problem with the world is
that the intelligent people are full of doubts, while the stupid ones are full
of confidence. "

This phenomenon seems to be explained by the Dunning–Kruger effect.

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posterboy
You seem rather confident with that assertion But I doubt you were serious!!
_baddum-ts_

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felipemnoa
For anybody that is wondering what baddum-ts means, here it is:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDAlblogUmY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDAlblogUmY)

