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When human beings first migrated from Asia into North America at the end of the last ice age, they found an enormous, now extinct creature known as the giant long-horned bison (Bison priscus). We know that early Americans hunted these beasts because excavated skeletons of the bison bear stone spear tips. The style of the points dates them to twelve to thirteen thousand years ago, not long after the first wave of human immigrants washed south and east across the continent. These early Americans ate a variety of plants and animals, but judging from the campsite remains, they had a special taste for long-horned bison. It was their favorite prey, perhaps because one animal filled so many stomachs. The giant horns that gave Bison priscus its common name tell us some important things about its lifestyle. Animals with gigantic weapons on their heads usually live alone or in small groups. Animals that live in herds usually have small horns. Horns and antlers help males in several ways. Animals use these horns and antlers to fight with other members of the same species, to increase their appeal to potential mates, and to protect themselves from predators. Fossil bones suggest that giant bison used their long, outward-facing horns to injure their opponents. An individual with longer horns had a better chance of circumventing its opponents' horns and fatally wounding them than one with shorter horns, and females probably preferred to mate with winners of these contests rather than with losers, either because they liked what they saw in the male or because they liked the territory that the male could defend from competitors. The giant bison's architecture served it well for thousands of years, but its body shrank and changed shape starting about twelve thousand years ago. The timing gives us an important clue about the cause. Only two major predators, wolves and lions, had hunted giant bison for tens of thousands of years. If they caused the change, it would have happened much earlier. The big change in the bison's environment twelve to thirteen thousand years ago was the arrival of a new predator. This one walked on two feet, hunted in cooperative bands, and carried spears with well-designed stone points. Its remarkable efficiency at hunting seems to have caused a reduction in the body size of other large mammals, too. Over the past ten thousand years, North American sheep, elk, moose, musk ox, bears, antelope, and wolves have all shrunk. Scholars have offered various explanations for these changes, but it seems likely that these new hunters converted the giant bison's shape and habits from virtues into liabilities. Hunters who needed to get close to their prey, such as wolves and human beings armed with spears, preferred to attack lone individuals rather than many victims at once. Hunting punished solitary, territorial giant bison and rewarded those that stayed close together. Clumps of bison became more common and grew into herds. Herding is a classic response to heavy predation. It brings a statistical advantage to herd members because the odds that a predator will hone in on any one individual will decrease with the size of the herd. Herds further improved odds for members through cooperative behavior. Members warned each other of danger, and they fought off predators by joining forces (e.g. by forming a circle with vulnerable backsides to the center and dangerous horns facing the periphery).  But bison paid a price for herding. In a given area, the supply of food per individual declined along with the chances of being attacked. Smaller bodies probably resulted from a decline in food availability as bison crowded together. Herding changed the bison's shape as well as size. Now survival depended on the ability to crop grass, bison's main food, quickly. Shifting the head closer to the ground, reducing horn size, and growing a hump to cantilever, or support, the head's weight enabled bison to graze for long periods without strain. Giant horns, which enabled males to defend territory, may also have become a liability as being able to stay close together became more valuable.