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Paleontologists scanned the gallery of the Honsec Cave in Spain, where in 2021 they discovered traces of an unknown animal. Based on the created three-dimensional models, scientists concluded that these prints most likely belong to a cave bear. In such cases, the species is identified as Ursichnus europaeus. This is the first time that such traces have been recorded on the Iberian Peninsula, and they were left by an animal approximately 27–28 thousand years ago.
Cave bears became famous, in particular, thanks to the illustrations of Zdenek Burian in the book "Prehistoric Animals" (1956). Mostly we learn about ancient animals from their fossilized remains, but in some cases paleontologists are lucky enough to find even soft tissues or mummified bodies (preserved, for example, in permafrost). At the same time, there is another type of fossil evidence - ichnofossils, i.e. traces of any animal activity (walking, running, swimming, nesting, etc.), which help to better understand their ecology and the evolution of movement.
Some species are known only from such prints and are given the status of ichnotaxons. For example, in the Romanian "bear cave" (Urshilor) in 2011, fossilized paw prints were found, which probably belonged to Ursus spelaeus (cave bear). However, it is difficult to prove XNUMX% that they were left by this species, so the German paleontologist Cajus Diedrich suggested calling such finds Ursichnus europaeus.
A new series of bear tracks has been discovered in the Cueva de Honseca cave in northern Spain. Although the discovery was reported in 2021, it was not known until then which animal left them or how old they were. The cave is 3,6 kilometers long, and some of the tracks have been damaged by tourists who have visited these rooms since the 1970s. Recently, Spanish researchers published an article in the journal Ichnos, describing the tracks and identifying the species of animal.
The scientists identified 16 footprints, consisting of three elements: a heel pad, toes, and claws. The average size of the forefoot prints was approximately 13 centimeters long and 14,6 centimeters wide, and the hindfoot prints were 15,6 and 12,5 centimeters, respectively. To obtain accurate data, the researchers scanned the cave in high resolution, created 3D models of the footprints, and compared the results with already known ichnotaxa from other places, for example, from the Chauvet Cave in France.
When asked whether these were the tracks of a brown bear (U. arctos) or a cave bear, experts paid attention to the shape of the fingers, the size of the claws and the development of the plantar pad. These characteristics are more consistent with the "portrait" of Ursichnus europaeus, as also pointed out by Caius Diedrich. This is the first find of this type on the Iberian Peninsula.
Judging by the size of the tracks, most of the prints belong to a relatively young bear weighing about 100 kilograms, but some well-preserved tracks probably belong to an animal weighing up to 438 kilograms. The question of whether the cave bear was larger than the brown bear is still open - according to various estimates, it could reach from 500 to 800 kilograms, while the brown one weighs an average of 400–600 kilograms.
