The recent discovery of fossils, including those of a giant tortoise, ground sloth, a lion-sized armadillo relative known as pampatea, a striped-toothed cat, and others such as horses, camels, and mastodons in Bender’s Cave on Texas’ Edwards Plateau, may unveil a previously unknown warm period about 100,000 years ago.
An artistic representation of Ice Age mammals: Fossils of species resembling the armadillo-like pampatea and giant sloth were found in a Texas water cave. Image credit: Jaime Chirinos.
Bender’s Cave, situated on private land in Comal County, serves as a crucial fossil repository. This underground water channel, significant for central Texas’ groundwater system, is reported to be dense with fossils.
“I’ve never encountered a cave with so many fossils scattered around. The bones were literally everywhere,” commented John Moretti, a paleontologist at the University of Texas at Austin.
The bones were believed to have entered the cave through a sinkhole triggered by erosion and flooding thousands of years ago, where they have been preserved ever since.
“Evidence suggests that these fossils could be from the last warm interglacial phase, approximately 100,000 years ago,” Dr. Moretti stated.
“Despite extensive paleontological studies in the area over the past century, no fossils from this epoch had been previously identified in central Texas.”
“This discovery is providing invaluable insights, showcasing the area’s unique environmental and animal communities, which are unlike anything documented before in Texas.”
Dr. Moretti and local caver John Young extracted fossils from 21 distinct zones within Bender’s Cave.
To access the fossils, we donned goggles and snorkels, crawling along the riverbed where collecting was effortless—simply pulling bones from the river’s bottom without needing to excavate them.
Remarkable finds include hespero test do giant tortoise bones, giant sloth Megalonix Jeffer Sonnypanpasser, and remains from scimitar-toothed cats homotherium serum, horses, camels, and mastodons.
All fossils displayed a polished, rounded appearance with comparable rust-red mineralization, indicating they were deposited in the cave at roughly the same time.
“This study highlights the fact that even in a well-explored region like central Texas, new discoveries continue to emerge,” commented Dr. David Ledesma from St. Edward’s University, not involved in the research.
The team’s findings are published in the journal Quaternary Research, detailing how these late Pleistocene megafauna could hold evidence of the last interglacial period. For more information, visit the published study.
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John A. Moretti and John Young. 2026. Discovery of late Pleistocene megafauna at Bender’s Cave on the Edwards Plateau in Texas may indicate evidence of the last interglacial period. Quaternary Research 131: 134-160; doi: 10.1017/qua.2025.10071
Source: www.sci.news
