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I'm pretty sure there were no buffalo in the Amazon or Pantanal 500 years ago.

• mkoubaa 5y ago
  Giant sloths were a thing
  • CyanBird 5y ago
    Correct, yet these were not "a thing" 500 years ago, not even 5000,try double that and then then "maybe"
    • mkoubaa 5y ago
      The point in the parent comment was not about the literal number 500 but rather about a point in time before humans altered the megafauna
• bpodgursky 5y ago
  It's actually pretty clear from new imagery the Amazon was significantly deforested and farmed before European diseases wiped out the natives. And before that, the extinctions mammoths and mastadons (by humans) led to a lot of tree cover that was grassland when the grazers kept the forests in check.
  • mistrial9 5y ago
    area check https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_rainforest https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_rainforest the amazing, Amazon Basin, is far, far larger than any previous human terraculture eh?
  • pomian 5y ago
    There was an interesting discussion on HN not too long ago (1-3 months?), that we have been wrong about human stress on mammoths etc. We should find it. As usual we learn neat things on HN.