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Scientists Discover Remains of 33 Species in Norwegian Cave With a Thriving Ecosystem 75,000 Years Ago

In the 1990s, Arne Qvam Cave was opened due to mining activities; two decades later, researchers excavated Ice Age bones from the place.

BY SOMDATTA MAITY

PUBLISHED 2 HOURS AGO

Elephant, lion, zebra, rhino, and deer. (Representative Cover Image Source: Getty Images | Photo by ugurhan)

For researchers, the Ice Age has been an intriguing time to investigate. However, information regarding it has not always been the easiest to find, as items from that period are difficult to uncover in pristine condition. It is especially true for the Arctic region. However, it could change now with some recent investigations. Researchers announced their analysis of certain remains uncovered from a cave in Norway near the village of Kjøpsvik, all of which could be from a particular period in the Ice Age, when temperatures had risen. This discovery was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The analysis provides a never-before-seen glimpse of the state of the Arctic ecosystem 75,000 years ago.

tree under watergrasspaont (Representative Image Source: Pexels | Photo by Tsvetoslav Hristov)

Discovery of the Remains

The remains were exposed to humans in the 1990s from Arne Qvam Cave, and were excavated in 2021 and 2022, according to Science Alert. The cave was originally concealed within a mountain, but mining activities led to the covering being broken down. Further exploration reveals several remains of various animals, buried in the lower layers of sedimentary rock, dating back 75,000 years. It made the collection the oldest evidence of an animal community in the warmer period of the last Ice Age. The insights from this stash will help researchers understand the gaps present in their understanding of biodiversity and the environment during the Ice Age.

Dendrogram presenting the fauna identified from the bone assemblage recovered from Arne Qvamgrotta (Image Source: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences)

Arctic Community in the Ice Age

The bones belonged to 46 different taxa across 33 distinct species, according to Cosmos. There were 13 kinds of mammals, 10 kinds of fish, and 23 types of birds in the collection. Researchers detected bones of birds, like finches, a buzzard, ducks, auks, a raven, a kite, a crane, and a sort of grouse called rock ptarmigan in the collection. Mammals in the stash were identified as seals, blue whale, porpoise, hares, bowhead whale, polar bear, reindeer, arctic fox, and grey wolf. All the uncovered species were labeled as "cold-adapted" because they were conditioned to survive in the Arctic's cold.

The most noteworthy remains were those of collared lemmings, a small mammal that has now become extinct in Europe. Before this discovery, the mammal's remains had never been detected in Scandinavia. Researchers were ecstatic with the extensive collection, as preserved remains older than 10,000 years have been a rarity in the Arctic region. Through their analysis, experts could understand how the community lived during the "warm" period and how they responded to the sudden change when temperatures started to drop.

Images of Discovery sites (Image Source: ) — Images of Discovery sites (Image Source: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.)

Insights from the Collection

Senior author Professor Sanne Boessenkool from the University of Oslo claims that the collection indicates a diverse mix of animals lived both in marine and terrestrial environments in the region 75,000 years ago. All of them appeared to have formed a coastal ecosystem. The team speculated that ice had possibly melted more or less from the region during that period, after the uptick in temperature. The presence of freshwater fish species suggests that even rivers and lakes were available as water resources and habitat during that time.

Considering the state in which the remains were found, researchers claimed that the flourishing phase came to a close after temperatures began to drop again, and glaciers began to take root in the environment. The coastal ecosystem species depended on freshwater sources for their needs, which were buried under the glacier after a drop in temperature. The lack of these resources pushed the community to starvation.

Researchers believe the populations failed to migrate to warmer ecosystems and died in place as they were unable to adapt to the changing conditions. It was backed by the finding that the mitochondrial DNA in the bones did not match the modern population of the particular species. It means that the lineage of these species did not make it outside the region. The fate indicates how challenging it is for cold-adapted species to face the extreme climate changes. This finding is crucial in the modern-day context, as the Arctic is going through another change, but this time in the opposite direction. Boessenkool shared that the cold-adapted species struggled with increasing cold; their prospect in increasing heat may be even worse.