Chile

A fractured skull and much of an adult gomphothere skeleton have emerged from the bed of Chile's long-vanished Tagua Tagua lake. Archaeologists suspect people may have opened the skull to eat the brain, but the newly recovered animal's age and the precise cause of the break remain to be established. The Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile's report provisionally places the find at about 12,500 years old, adding a fresh lead to the story of megafauna hunting in the Americas. Female Woolly Mammoths Were Preferred Targets for Ice Age Hunters Hunted by Neanderthals: Giant Elephants Traveled Hundreds of Miles Earlier excavations at Taguatagua 3 documented gomphothere bones, a hearth and stone tools; these are not photographs of the 2026 discovery. (