More than 100,000 years ago, elephants raised their newborns among the dunes of the ancient Spanish coast. Fossil footprints suggest at least 14 calves, belonging to the extinct straight-tusked elephant (Palaeoloxodon antiquus), were part of a prehistoric nursery 鈥� and that they were hunted by Neanderthals.
at the Naturtejo UNESCO Global Geopark in Portugal and his colleagues identified the tracks on a broad fossil surface called the Matalasca帽as Trampled Surface (MTS) in Huelva, Spain, that contains the footsteps of antelope, birds, wolves and even Neanderthals.
The researchers identified 34 sets of footprints attributed to the straight-tusked elephants, the local elephant species during the time the tracks were made 鈥� about 100,000 years ago, according to geological analysis of the rocks.
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Most of the footprints were left by infants that weighed between 70 and 200 kilograms. The tracks of adult elephants are rarer at the MTS site, but, based on track size, the researchers hypothesise that there are footprints of three adult females there.
The footprint records match ecological observations of modern elephants, says de Carvalho, in which youngsters stay near to adult females with larger adult males rarely being present. 鈥淲e describe elephant nursery and reproductive ecology in the fossil record for the first time,鈥� he says.
At the time the straight-tusked elephants roamed around what is now Huelva, the MTS was a pond that acted as a water source between coastal sand dunes. The water and nearby vegetation probably made a comfortable nursery for the young calves.
But the secluded beach spot wasn鈥檛 free from predators. Footprints of Neanderthals have been discovered in the same track layers and researchers have even found stone tools made by the prehistoric people.
While signs of interactions between people and pachyderms at the site have yet to appear, the team suggests that Neanderthals were drawn to the prospective hunting ground by the abundance of elephant calves. 鈥淎 newly born elephant could be easy prey and just a delicious item in the Neanderthal menu,鈥� says de Carvalho.
Scientific Reports
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