Changes in projectile design and size of prey reveal the central role of Fishtail points in megafauna hunting in South America.

Fishtail projectile points are the earliest widespread projectile type in South America, and share chronology and techno-morphology with Clovis, the oldest North American projectile type. Both were temporally associated with late Pleistocene megafaunal extinctions. Although the elusive direct evidence of human exploitation of megafauna in South America had kept Fishtails out of the extinction debate, a recent paper showed a strong relationship between the temporal density and spatial distribution of megafauna and Fishtail projectile points, and proposed that this weapon was designed and used for megafauna hunting, contributing to their extinction.

Human cranium of Candonga Cave site and its implications for the initial peopling of South America.

The aim of this paper is to analyze the morphology of a skull from Candonga Cave (central Argentina), dating to the Pleistocene-Holocene transition, and to discuss its implications for the early peopling of South-America by Palaeoamerican and Amerindian populations. Although this cranium is fragmented, impeding the standard morphometric analysis, an alternative methodology was implemented in order to obtain relevant information about the South American people origins. Results of measurements provide new information to reinforce the hypothesis that Paleoamerican crania possess similar morphological traits to those of current Fueguian populations, as previous studies have claimed, and to suggest that the cranium of Candonga has strong morphological affinities with Early Holocene specimens from Lagoa Santa (Brazil) and Late Holocene of Beagle Channel (Argentina), both belonging to Paleoamerican morphology.