Pendants made from giant sloths suggest earlier arrival of people in the Americas

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy New research suggests humans lived in South America at the same time as now extinct giant sloths, bolstering evidence that people arrived in the Americas earlier than once thought. In the past decade, other research has challenged the conventional wisdom that people didn’t reach the Americas until a few thousand years before rising sea levels covered the Bering land bridge between Russia and Alaska, perhaps around 15,000 years ago. Two years ago, another team of researchers reported that fossilized human footprints found near White Sands, New Mexico, dated back to 21,000 to 23,000 years ago — though some researchers dispute these dates. Other evidence from Mexico suggests human presence around 26,000 years ago, and findings from Uruguay may suggest human occupation as much as 30,000 years ago.