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Pleistocene South American megafauna has traditionally attracted the interest of scientists and the popular media alike. However, ecological interactions between the species that inhabited these ecosystems, such as predator-prey relationships or interspecific competition, are poorly known. To this regard, carnivore marks imprinted on the fossil bones of megamammal remains are very useful for deciphering biological activity and, hence, potential interspecific relationships among taxa. In this article, we study historical fossil collections housed in different European and Argentinean museums that were excavated during the 19th and early 20th centuries in the Pampean region, Argentina, in order to detect carnivore marks on bones of megamammals and provide crucial information on the ecological relationships between South American taxa during the Pleistocene. Our results indicate that the long bones of megafauna from the Pampean region (e.g., the Mylodontidae and Toxodontidae families) exhibit carnivore marks. Furthermore, long bones of medium-sized species and indeterminate bones also present punctures, pits, scores and fractures. Members of the large-carnivore guild, such as ursids, canids and even felids, are recognised as the main agents that inflicted the marks. We hypothesize that the analysed carnivore marks represent the last stages of megaherbivore carcass exploitation, suggesting full consumption of these animals by the same or multiple taxa in a hunting and/or scavenging scenario. Moreover, our observations provide novel insights that help further our understanding of the palaeoecological relationships of these unique communities of megamammals.Subjects Paleontology

During the Pleistocene-Holocene transition at ~10.0 uncalibrated, or ~11.7 calibrated kya, the Americas were undoubtedly inhabited by humans from north to south ends. The groups living in that time had cultural and adaptive differences in terms of subsistence and technological pursuits. Particularly in the southern cone of South America, archaeological remains witnessed hunter-gatherers living at ~11.0-10.0 uncalibrated kya. They mostly used the so-called "fishtail," or just "Fell" points, a widespread Paleo-American marker. Despite that, they exploited different faunal species, including extant and extinct fauna. At the Salto Department in the northwestern region of Uruguay, on the Itaperibí Grande creek shore, archaeological remains of bones and stones were recovered. One of the most remarkable is a fragmented fossil femur of Lestodon armatus, a mega-mammal giant ground sloth. In its anterior face, this specimen shows diverse kinds of marks. However, no clear association among the findings was documented. Then, in order to check the possible relationship between the bone and the artifacts, the specimen was subjected to radiocarbon dating and it was analyzed in detail from a taphonomic perspective to evaluate the origin of the marks. The radiocarbon assay indicates that the specimen belongs to the last millennium of the Pleistocene. The date is relevant as it is one of the few assays obtained on a sample from that time. The taphonomic study revealed that the marks were not produced by human activity, hence, its primary relationship with the stone artifacts is uncertain. Despite that, these data make an important contribution to the knowledge about the fauna contemporaneously living with the earliest hunt-How to cite this paper: Nami, H. G.,

Pampean (Argentina) megamammal species are seen nowadays in different museums around Europe. These specimens were collected from the late 18th century until the early 20th century. They represent and have inspired the most important milestones in natural sciences during the 19th century, and were collected for social, political and economic reasons, both in South America and Europe. In these collections, paleontological, historical and archaeological realms are merged. Currently, they are useful at research and educational levels, contributing to worldwide society, whilst modern technological advances allow equal access to these materials, which has been especially necessary during the coronavirus pandemic.

The historical Florentino Ameghino collection housed in the Museo de La Plata (Argentina) joined the 19th century international discussion about human antiquity. The collection comprises bones with evidences of anthropic modification from alleged Tertiary beds associated with extinct animals. According to the Argentinean naturalist Florentino Ameghino, these evidences proved the early presence of humans in the South America's Southern cone. This analysis rules out the proposed intentionality behind the anthropic traces. Instead, most of the materials were remains of broken bones for marrow extraction. The revision of these historical collections is therefore crucial for obtaining up-to-date information to advance in current researches as methodologies to study them had highly developed in the last century. In this sense, museum collections become an alternative and powerful firsthand tool that preserves our non-renewable record of the past. ResumoA colecção histórica Florentino Ameghino, alojada no Museu de La Plata (Argentina), fez parte da discussão internacional do século XIX sobre a antiguidade humana. A colecção compreende ossos, de alegados estratos do período Terciário associados a animais extintos, com marcas de modificação antrópica. Segundo o naturalista argentino Florentino Ameghino, essas evidências comprovavam a presença precoce de seres humanos no cone sul da América do Sul. Esta análise descarta a intencionalidade dos traços antrópicos. Em vez disso, considera que a maioria dos materiais eram restos de ossos quebrados para extracção de medula óssea. A revisão dessas colecções históricas é, portanto, crucial para obter informações actualizadas que permitam avançar as pesquisas atuais, pois as metodologias para estudá-las foram significativamente desenvolvidas no último século. Nesse sentido, as colecções de museus tornam-se uma alternativa e uma poderosa ferramenta de primeira mão que preserva o nosso registo não renovável do passado. Going back to collections: a study case of the Florentino Ameghino collection housed in the Museo de La Plata (Argentina)De volta às colecções: o caso da colecção Florentino Ameghino do Museu de La Plata (Argentina)

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