Divers Stumble Upon Ice Age Animals In a Texas Cave—Including Species Absolutely No One Expected
Ice Age animals, including giant tortoises and mammoths, were found in a Texas cave.
A paleontologist snorkeling through the dark underwater passages of a Texas cave made a startling discovery: the streambed was littered with fossils of Ice Age animals, including species never before documented in Central Texas.
The find, at a site called Bender’s Cave in Comal County, is reshaping what scientists understand about the region’s ancient climate and the creatures that once roamed it. The study was published in the journal Quaternary Research and is based on research from the University of Texas at Austin.
Bones ‘all over the floor’
Paleontologist John Moretti from UT’s Jackson School of Geosciences explored the underground stream cave during trips between 2023 and 2024 alongside co-author John Young. What they found was far from a typical fossil site. The bones weren’t locked in rock. They were scattered across the streambed, and Moretti picked them directly from the bottom while snorkeling through the cave’s underwater passages.
“There were fossils everywhere, just everywhere, in a way that I haven’t seen in any other cave. It was just bones all over the floor,” Moretti said.
The collection reads like a catalog of Ice Age giants: pieces of giant tortoise, armor from a pampathere — a large armadillo relative of the genus Holmesina — along with remains of giant ground sloths, saber-tooth cats, camels, mastodons and mammoths.
Unexpected species in an unexpected place
What makes the discovery particularly significant is not just the variety of fossils but where they turned up. Giant tortoise and pampathere had not been previously documented in Central Texas. Other species found at the site, including mastodons and ground sloths, are rare in the region.
The fossils were unevenly distributed throughout the cave, clustered in certain areas with some buried in clay deposits. Scientists believe floodwater carried the bones into the cave through sinkholes over long stretches of time, acting like a natural collection system. That process left the fossils smooth, rounded and mineral-stained.
A different picture of Ice Age Texas
The animal species found at Bender’s Cave are telling scientists something unexpected about Central Texas during the Ice Age. Rather than painting a picture of cold, dry grassland — the environment typically associated with that era in the region — the fossils point toward a warmer, wetter interglacial period.
Giant tortoises require warm climates. Pampatheres prefer warm environments. Ground sloths and mastodons are linked to forest habitats. Taken together, the evidence suggests Central Texas may have included forests and warmer conditions during certain stretches of the Ice Age.
“This site is showing us something different, and that’s really important because of all the work that’s been done in this region,” Moretti said.
When researchers compared Bender’s Cave to more than 40 other Texas fossil sites, the cave’s collection was more similar to sites from warmer periods than to nearby Central Texas locations.
Pinning down exactly how old the fossils are has proven difficult. Researchers attempted radiocarbon dating, but the results were unclear. Cave water and minerals affect the bones over time — the fossils absorb new material, making traditional dating methods less reliable. Instead, scientists estimated the age using the types of species found and habitat clues those animals provide.
‘Still learning new things’
Researcher David Ledesma emphasized the broader significance of what the cave revealed.
“Some of the fossils that John has come across are species that we didn’t think would occur in this part of Texas. That we’re still learning new things and finding new things is quite exciting,” Ledesma said.
The discovery at Bender’s Cave serves as a reminder that even well-studied regions can hold surprises — sometimes just beneath the surface, waiting in the dark water of an underground stream.
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