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F. Ameghino, who was, like most scientists of his time, committed to the concept of evolution, wrote: “The vestiges belong to such a distant epoch that I do not dare to consider them as proof of the existence of man, but rather as remains of ‘a being more or less resembling man, directly ancestral to man of the modern type’” (1908, p. 105). After two years of research, Ameghino decided the intelligent being that made the artifacts at Monte Hermoso was of a different genus than modern humans and their immediate ancestors. Among the fossils recovered from Monte Hermoso was a hominid atlas (the first bone of the spinal column, at the base of the skull). Ameghino thought it displayed primitive features, but A. Hrdlicka judged it to be fully human (Section 6.2.4). This strongly suggests that beings of modern human type were responsible for the artifacts and signs of fire discovered in the Montehermosan formation.

Although Ameghino thought the Montehermosan formation to be Miocene, modern authorities place it in the Early Pliocene. According to E. Anderson (1984, p. 41) the stratigraphic sequence of the Argentine coastal region can be dated in the following way: the Ensenadan at .4 –1.5 million years, the Uquian at 1.5–2.5 million years, and the Chapadmalalan at 2.5–3.0 million years. The Montehermosan precedes the Chapadmalalan in the general Argentine sequence, and thus it would be over 3 million years old.

Other authorities (Marshall et al. 1982, p. 1352) give a slightly different chronology, placing the Ensenadan formation at .4 –1.0 million years, the Uquian at 1–2 million years, the Chapadmalalan at 2–3 million years, and the Montehermosan at 3–5 million years. A potassium-argon date of 3.59 million years has been obtained for materials from the Montehermosan formation (Savage and Russell 1983, p. 347).

The antiquity of the Montehermosan formation is further supported by the character of its fossil mammalian bones. Paleontologists believe that during the early part of the Tertiary, North America and South America were separated by water and developed distinct mammalian populations. For example, huge ground sloths not found in North America populated South America. When a land bridge eventually formed, North American mammals migrated south, and South American mammals moved north. Modern authorities (Marshall et al. 1982, p. 1351) say that the Panamanian land bridge, which allowed the exchange of mammals between North America and South America, appeared 3 million years ago, just after the period represented by the Montehermosan formation. According to Ameghino (1912, p. 64), the fauna of Monte Hermoso reveals “the complete absence of North American types.” Ameghino’s discoveries in the Montehermosan formation—including stone tools, modified animal bones, signs of fire, and human skeletal remains—thus suggest a human presence in Argentina more than 3 million years ago.

5.1.2 Hrdlicka Attempts to Discredit Ameghino

Ameghino’s discoveries at Monte Hermoso and elsewhere in the Tertiary formations of Argentina attracted the interest of several European scientists, especially those who were attempting to demonstrate the existence of Tertiary humans on the basis of the European discoveries discussed in preceding chapters.

Ales Hrdlicka, an anthropologist at the Smithsonian Institution, also took great, though unsympathetic, interest in Ameghino’s discoveries. Hrdlicka found the degree of support they enjoyed among professional scientists, particularly in Europe, dismaying. In addition to being opposed to the existence of Tertiary humans, Hrdlicka was also extremely hostile to any reports of a human presence in the Americas earlier than a few thousand years before the present. After building an immense reputation by discrediting, with questionable arguments, all such reports from North America, Hrdlicka then turned his attention to the much-discussed South American discoveries of Florentino Ameghino. Hrdlicka was most concerned about the human skeletal remains reported by Ameghino