Paleontologists have discovered ancient bear footprints in Honseca Cave in northern Spain. Distinguishing cave bear and brown bear tracks is complicated, but cave bears are thought to be most likely to leave tracks at Honseka.
Cave bear footprints in Honseca Cave, Spain. Image credit: Rodriguez others., doi: 10.1080/10420940.2024.2446153.
Cave badger (Ursus Spelaeus) was a very large bear that formed the sister lineage of extant brown bears and polar bears.
These animals lived in Europe and Asia during the Pleistocene, but went extinct about 24,000 years ago.
It measured 2.7 to 3.5 meters (8.9 to 11.5 ft) in length, up to 1.7 meters (5.6 ft) at the shoulder, and weighed 225 to 500 kg.
People may have had occasional encounters with cave bears.
Despite their name, they did not actually live in caves, only using them for hibernation.
Nitrogen isotope data from giant crushed molars and their bones indicate that cave bears were primarily herbivorous, with leaves as their staple food.
“Cave bear footprints are not uncommon in the soft sediments of caves on the Iberian Peninsula, and many speleologists are well aware of their presence,” said Dr. Ana Mateos of the Center for Human Evolution and Human Research (CENIEH). .
“However, until now these fossil traces have not been the subject of systematic study.”
“In fact, only one study of this kind has ever been carried out in Romania's Ursilor Cave.”
Cave bear restoration (Ursus Spelaeus). Image credit: Sergio de la Larosa / CC BY-SA 3.0.
Mateos and his colleagues discovered 16 cave bear footprints in Honseca Cave in Palencia, Spain.
The footprints were assigned to Ursichnus europaeus This is the first record of this species discovered in a cave on the Iberian Peninsula.
“We performed a scan of the footprint surface and its surroundings using a laser scanner that creates a three-dimensional cloud of millions of points, and combined this with a photogrammetric model.” said Dr. Adrian Martinez. CENIEH technician.
“This model has been used to take various measurements of footprints and compare them with those of other caves in Europe, such as the Ursilol Cave in Romania.”
“Furthermore, by processing the model, we were able to generate images that highlight the shape of individual footprints,” added Dr. Alfonso Benito, also from CENIEH.
“The shape of the toe impressions and the length of Urushiro's and Honseka's claw marks suggest that in both cases they belong to the cave bear, which went extinct about 28,000 years ago, rather than to brown bears.”
“Unfortunately, before scientists knew about their existence, some of the footprints were destroyed by the footprints of amateurs who had not paid attention and visited the interior of the cave,” said Jesús of CENIEH. Dr. Rodriguez said.
“Therefore, one of the goals of this type of research is to highlight the value of these fossils and promote their preservation.”
of study Published in this month's magazine Ichnos.
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J. Rodriguez others. Cave bear footprints (Ursichnus europaeus Diedrich, 2011) from Honseca Cave, Palencia, Spain. Ichnospublished online on January 9, 2025. doi: 10.1080/10420940.2024.2446153
Source: www.sci.news
