“Ancient Secrets Revealed: Ice Age Bears and Wolf-Like Creatures Uncovered in Mysterious Underwater Cave!”
The finds shed some fascinating light on the relationships between ancient humans in the area and the animals around them. It seems apparent that wildlife as seemingly threatening as a bear and a wolf actually cohabited this space with humans of the time.
Published in the journal Biology Letters, the study suggests that these animals fell to their deaths in this cave which lies 180 feet below sea level. Most fortunate, perhaps, was the fact that their bones were in pristine condition precisely because of this — as Mexico’s hot and humid climate would’ve otherwise eroded any remains.
“You can get a probe into the past that you don’t ordinarily expect to get, and that’s the great thing about these caves in the Yucatán,” explained Ross MacPhee, curator of mammalogy and vertebrate zoology at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.
Additionally, this diving expedition and its findings have shed new light on the two species in general. It was previously believed that these meat-eaters were indigenous to South America but this discovery proves that they also lived much further north.
Divers found tapir, saber-toothed cat, cougar, and ancient elephant bones during their 2007 excavation here as well. The fact that the last Ice Age resulted in rising sea levels was a lucky break. These caves essentially became the perfect low-oxygen environments for bone preservation.
“Typically as a paleontologist, if I’m going on a caving trip looking for Ice Age animals, I’m lucky to find a tooth,” Blaine Schubert, the study’s lead paleontologist and executive director at the Center of Excellence in Paleontology at East Tennessee State University, told NewScientist.
