Giant sloths and mastodons coexisted with humans for millennia in Americas, new discoveries suggest

New discoveries from several archaeological sites in North and South America suggest that ancient people first arrived in the New World much earlier than scientists once thought. These findings hint at a remarkably different life for early people in the Americas, one in which they may have spent millennia sharing prehistoric savannas and wetlands with enormous beasts like mastodons, saber-toothed cats and dire wolves. In recent years, new research methods, the examination of additional archaeological sites and the inclusion of more diverse scholars across the region have rewritten the tale of the final chapter of the human origins story.