Mammoth landscapes: good country for hunter-gatherers

Proboscideans, because of their great size and unique behaviors, affect habitats in conspicuous ways, thus leaving information-rich signs about animal health, individual and group movements, and demography. Dung deposits, trail networks, rubbing sites, and excavations in elephant country afford abundant environmental clues to animal health and density. Prehistoric human groups able to subsist by opportunistic exploitation of mammoths or mastodons could have taken advantage of such information to be efficient foragers and rapid dispersers into new ranges. In addition, landscapes containing proboscideans have potential future fossil deposits containing skeletons of many animal taxa, isolated bone elements, fractured and flaked bones and tusks, and plant parts preserved due to proboscidean behavior.