Discovered prehistoric quicksand trap containing elephants remains
Researchers have discovered evidence of what appears to be a "quicksand trap" from prehistoric times that caused the disappearance of elephants over a million years ago.
This news is not about ancient civilizations, but still interesting as it shows how hard it was for our ancestors to survive in ancient time.
In a study published in the Journal of Iberian Geology, a team of researchers from Spanish institutions examined an archaeological site called Fuente Nueva 3 (FN3), located in the province of Granada in southern Spain. This area preserves some of the earliest evidence of human presence in Western Europe, in the form of carved stones dating back to about 1.4 million years ago.
The area has also preserved manuports, which are unmodified stones that were used as percussion tools to break bones and access marrow. They may also have been used as throwing weapons to scare off predators.
In this area, believed to have been a quicksand trap, a partial skeleton of an extinct elephant has been discovered. The skeleton is partially surrounded by 34 hyena coprolites (fossilized feces). In addition the area contains numerous fossils of large mammals, some of which retain artificial marks associated with skinning, butchering, and marrow processing activities, not to mention bones with bite marks made by scavenging carnivores.
The analysis of underground archaeological layers revealed that one in particular appeared to be composed of fine and very fine sands. These fine sands, deposited near a prehistoric lake that once existed in the region, may have functioned as quicksand, according to the researchers. The study indicates that these natural quicksands trapped large prehistoric herbivores, including an extinct species of elephant, Mammuthus meridionalis, whose remains are preserved in the layer, due to the significant weight of their limbs.
Analyzing the remains in the layer, the authors hypothesize that the semi-sunken carcasses of the "megaherbivores," which occasionally got stuck in the quicksand, attracted scavengers. These scavengers included both hyenas and prehistoric humans, who fed on the affected animals. This is demonstrated by the presence of carved stone tools left by humans and the hyena coprolites (the fossilized feces of the animals) that were associated with the remains of the megaherbivores.
"Quicksands can potentially be a deadly trap for wildlife," the authors wrote in the study. "After an animal sinks into quicksand, the viscosity of the sediment increases due to the separation of the quicksand into two phases: a water-rich phase and a sand-rich phase. This causes an animal trapped in the quicksand to sink deeper as it moves trying to escape from the quicksand trap. "In such an environment, the viscosity can reach such high levels that an animal might need a force up to three times its weight to free itself from the sediment."
However, while these quicksands would have been deadly for large herbivores, hyenas and prehistoric humans appeared able to wander on their surface without the risk of sinking. "Getting trapped in mud is a relatively common phenomenon today in Africa because, during periods of drought, elephants and other large mammals venture into dry dams in search of drinking water and to take mud baths," the authors wrote. "Giant bare-skinned animals like elephants, rhinoceroses, and hippos usually wallow in mud to thermoregulate and protect themselves from insect bites and parasites. However, their enormous size poses the risk of getting mired in the mud," the authors stated.
In the study, the researchers highlight a modern entrapment episode where a mother elephant and her calf became trapped in a muddy waterhole during the peak of the dry season in 2019 in Zimbabwe's Mana Pools National Park. "Eventually, the calf was eaten alive by a pack of spotted hyenas, and the mother died a few days later, probably due to dehydration," they wrote. According to the authors, the findings of the latest study represent a "very important milestone" for our understanding of the subsistence strategies of these early Europeans, shedding light on their competition with hyenas for access to carrion meat.
"This is the first time that a natural trap of this kind has been described in a fossil site of particular interest for human evolution," the researchers stated in a press release from the University of Malaga in Spain.
source: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s41513-024-00241-1
