Overview
- The peer-reviewed paper, published in March 2026 in Quaternary Research, details a dense fossil trove in Bender’s Cave in Comal County.
- Researchers report giant tortoise and pampathere remains alongside mastodons, giant ground sloths, saber-tooth cats, and American camels.
- UT Austin paleontologist John Moretti and caver John Young snorkeled an underground stream on six trips from March 2023 to November 2024 and hand-collected bones from 21 zones.
- The fossils share a polished, rust-colored coating that points to a single flood-and-sinkhole transport event, and comparisons group the site with known last-interglacial localities on the Dallas area and Gulf Coast.
- Dating remains uncertain due to a lack of datable sediments, and the cave’s private-land setting highlights the need for scientist–landowner partnerships to document similar subterranean archives on the Edwards Plateau.