In the depths of the Hoyo Negro pit 180 feet below sea level, a diving team has successfully recovered the skulls, jaw bones, and other remains of two long-extinct Ice Age species.
Roberto Chavez-ArceA diver holding the skull of the short-faced bear, Arcotherium wingei. 2019.
Schubert said seven bones belonging to the short-faced bear and the bones of one — possibly two — wolf-like Protocyon have been successfully secured thus far. All recovered fossils have since been dated to the late Pleistocene, placing them back about 11,300 years.
For Schubert, the fact that these species have been found outside of South America isn’t even the most shocking aspect of this discovery, but rather it’s that there’s no better record of these species than this one to date.
“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,” he explained. “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.”
Sourse: www.allthatsinteresting.com
