Bridge Between North and South America Was Guarded by Daunting Beasts 10,000 Years Ago, Archaeologists Find Evidence

More than 10,000 years ago, the landscapes of what is now Mexico were teeming with monstrous creatures—massive bears, saber-toothed cats, and wolf-like carnivores loitered the land. The Ice Age was an era of both danger and wonder, with prehistoric humans coexisting alongside these giants. Fast forward to the present, fragments of this long-lost world are resurfacing from the depths of an underwater cave in the Yucatán Peninsula, surprising experts and shedding light on ancient ecosystems, stated Science Alert.

Deep down in the dark abyss of Hoyo Negro, a submerged pit in the Sac Actun cave system, researchers have discovered a stellar find—an ancient graveyard containing the skeletons of Ice Age megafauna and early humans. Among the diverse catalog of discoveries is the skull of a giant, short-faced bear (Arctotherium wingei), the bones of a wolf-like dog (Protocyon troglodytes), and a bunch of other creatures, including sabertooth cats, tapirs, cougars, and elephant-like gomphotheres. Blaine Schubert, lead author remarked, "The whole previous record of this particular type of bear is just known from a few localities in South America, and those are fragmentary remains…So, we went from not having any of this type of bear outside of South America to now having the best record of this type of bear from the Yucatán of Mexico," stated Live Science.

A long time ago, this deep pit was a deadly trap for monstrous animals. Falling nearly 200 feet to their deaths, creatures were shackled in the darkness. Over time, as glaciers melted and sea levels rose, the cave flooded, preserving the remains in little to no damage condition. The low-oxygen environment created the perfect conditions to protect these super-old skeletons from decay, making this one of the most prominent Ice Age fossil sites ever discovered in America. Among the remains are also two human skeletons, one of which belonged to a teenage girl who lived approximately 13,000 years ago, stated Science Alert.

Intriguingly, this makes them some of the oldest human remains ever found in the Western Hemisphere. Their presence in the cave adds another layer of mystery—did early humans fall into the same trap as the animals, or did they explore the cave with their own free will? Until this discovery, experts believed that the short-faced bear and wolf-like canid were just confined to South America. However, the new findings challenge this assumption. The researchers noted, "Their presence along with a diverse sloth assemblage suggests a more complex history of these organisms in Middle America…We suggest that landscape and ecological changes caused by latest Pleistocene glaciation supported an interchange pulse that included A. wingei, P. troglodytes and Homo sapiens," stated Science Alert.

This iconic discovery facilitates a rare glimpse into a prehistoric world frozen in time. As divers continue to explore the depths of Hoyo Negro, more mysteries may emerge, further revamping the history. Ross MacPhee, curator at the American Museum of Natural History remarked, "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," stated Live Science.