Prehistoric Quicksand In Spain Proved To Be A Deadly Trap For Extinct Elephants, Yet Humans And Hyenas Were Able To Walk Across It Without Sinking
More than a million years ago, a prehistoric “quicksand trap” caused numerous elephants to perish. A team of researchers from institutions in Spain was studying an archaeological site called Fuenta Nueve 3 (FN3), which is located in the province of Granada in southern Spain, when they uncovered what appeared to be ancient quicksand.
The area is known for its preservation of some of the earliest evidence of human occupancy in Western Europe. The evidence is in the form of carved stones that date back around 1.4 million years ago.
There were also manuports, unmodified stones that were used as tools to fracture bones and access the marrow.
Another use for these stones could have been as weapons that were thrown at predators to scare them away.
An analysis of the layers below the ground was conducted, and it revealed that one of the layers seemed to be made up of fine sands.
These fine sands were near a prehistoric lake that once existed in the region and may have been quicksand.
According to the researchers, the quicksand had the ability to trap large herbivores, including Mammuthus meridionalis, an extinct species of elephant. Due to the heavy weight of their limbs, the remains of several elephants are preserved in the layer.
The carcasses of these “megaherbivores” were left partially unburied in the quicksand, attracting scavengers such as hyenas and humans.
This was evidenced by fossilized excrements of the animals and carved stone tools from humans.
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“Quicksand can potentially be a deadly trap for wildlife,” wrote the authors of 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 quicksand to sink deeper when it moves trying to escape from the quicksand trap.”
The authors added that viscosity can reach extremely high levels in such an environment that an animal may have to exert a force up to three times its weight to liberate itself from the sand.
While the quicksand was dangerous for the megaherbivores, hyenas and humans were seemingly able to walk on top of it without having to worry about sinking.
Today, mud entrapment is common in Africa because elephants and other large mammals cross through mud during episodes of drought to search for drinking water and to take mud baths.
Larger animals like elephants, rhinoceroses, and hippos tend to wallow in mud to regulate their body temperatures and protect themselves from parasites and insect bites. However, their enormous size puts them at risk of getting stuck in the mud.
The findings from the latest study help create a clearer understanding of early Europeans and their competition with hyenas for carrion meat.
The study was published in the Journal of Iberian Geology.
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