Archaeologists excavating the remains of an ancient lake in central Chile have uncovered a 12,500-year-old gomphothere skeleton bearing possible signs of human processing, including a fractured skull that researchers believe may have been broken open to access the animal’s brain.
The discovery at Tagua Tagua in Chile’s O’Higgins Region provides new evidence of how some of South America’s earliest inhabitants interacted with the enormous mammals that roamed the continent near the end of the Pleistocene.
A team led by Rafael Labarca, an archaeologist and professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile’s School of Anthropology, recovered a substantial portion of the animal’s skeleton during an excavation campaign conducted between 31 August and 14 September 2026.
The remains, which include a well-preserved humerus, belong to an adult gomphothere and are estimated to be approximately 12,500 years old.
Researchers found the bones in unusually good condition. Particularly intriguing is damage to the animal’s skull, which may represent deliberate human activity.
The skull appears to have been fractured, potentially so that people could extract and eat the brain. Further analysis will be required to establish precisely how the damage occurred.
The fragile remains were carefully lifted from the excavation and protected with gauze and Japanese paper to preserve them for future study.
Ancient relatives of elephants
Gomphotheres were large herbivorous proboscideans related to modern elephants. They inhabited parts of South America during the Pleistocene before disappearing around the end of the last Ice Age.
Some reached approximately four metres in height and weighed several tonnes.
The animals fed on vegetation including grasses, leaves and bark, meaning their presence would have helped shape the ecosystems through which they moved.
Gomphothere remains have been discovered at several locations in Chile, including Osorno, Puerto Montt and Tagua Tagua. At some sites, their bones have been found alongside archaeological evidence suggesting interaction with humans.
Tagua Tagua has become particularly important because it preserves evidence of both extinct megafauna and some of the earliest people known to have inhabited central Chile.
Humans repeatedly visited the ancient lakeshore
The latest discovery forms part of a wider archaeological investigation that began in 2023, when researchers excavated a network of one-by-one-metre test pits around the former lake.
“We had the impression that the lake had been intensively occupied towards the end of the Pleistocene, approximately between 12,600 and 11,600 years before present,” Labarca said.
Two of the test pits produced remains of extinct animals alongside stone artefacts, prompting the team to expand its excavations during the 2025 and 2026 field seasons.
Those investigations have now revealed a much richer archaeological deposit.
“What we have found is, indeed, an association between abundant gomphothere remains, some horse remains, and many remains of burned birds, along with lithic material,” Labarca said.
The combination suggests that prehistoric people were exploiting a range of animals living in and around the lake rather than relying on a single species.
Researchers have yet to obtain definitive radiocarbon dates for the newly excavated material, but currently estimate that this phase of human activity occurred between approximately 12,600 and 12,400 years ago.
A prehistoric hunting ground
Rather than representing a single occupation, the archaeological evidence suggests groups repeatedly visited the shores of Lake Tagua Tagua over an extended period.
The researchers hope to reconstruct the ancient shoreline and establish how people used its resources during the final centuries of the Pleistocene.
Sites known as Tagua Tagua 1, Tagua Tagua 3 and the newly investigated Tagua Tagua 1 East are helping archaeologists piece together this pattern of activity.
According to Labarca, the evidence shows how people “settled sporadically on the edge of the lake at the end of the Pleistocene”.
The latest excavation was conducted close to a site first investigated by archaeologist Julio Montané in 1967. The proximity of the new remains suggests that the archaeological landscape surrounding the former lake may be considerably larger than previously recognised.
Humans and Ice Age giants
The discovery contributes to a growing archaeological picture of humans living alongside South America’s megafauna during the closing stages of the Ice Age.
At Tagua Tagua, the association of gomphothere and horse remains, burned bird bones and stone artefacts offers researchers an opportunity to investigate what people were eating and how they exploited the diverse animals of the ancient wetland environment.
The potentially human-modified gomphothere skull could prove particularly important. If detailed examination confirms deliberate processing, it would provide further evidence that people were systematically making use of these enormous animals for food.
The excavations form part of the Walking with Gomphothere project, supported by Spain’s PALARQ Foundation. The 2026 field season marks the fourth consecutive excavation carried out under the collaboration.
For archaeologists, the discoveries at Tagua Tagua are gradually transforming the extinct lake from a collection of isolated prehistoric sites into a much broader landscape of human activity — one repeatedly visited by people living alongside the last giants of the South American Ice Age.
Sources : Vision Universitaria
