Evidence<\/a> places the dunes in the Marine isotope stage, time slices from deep-sea cores, called MIS 5e about 129,000 to 116,000 years ago.<\/p>\n The work was led by Carlos Neto de Carvalho, Ph.D., at the University of Lisbon<\/a>. Neto de Carvalho specializes in coastal track records<\/a>, and his surveys found four footprint areas that capture short-lived scenes of movement.<\/p>\n Palaeoloxodon antiquus tracks<\/p>\n Wind-built dunes once held moist sand that took impressions when heavy feet pressed down and pushed grains aside.<\/p>\n Later sand buried the prints, and minerals glued grains together into eolianite, ancient dune sand cemented into rock.<\/p>\n Erosion can expose those layers again, but coastal storms can erase an exposed layer before teams document every surface.<\/p>\n Modern storms and tides cut into fossil dunes, exposing surfaces that hold the first known vertebrate tracks from Murcia\u2019s ancient dunes.<\/p>\n In that narrow window, the team used ichnology \u2013 the study of tracks and other traces \u2013 to identify animals.<\/p>\n Field notes and maps tied each surface to its setting, which matters because one footprint layer can vanish in weeks.<\/p>\n Tracing an elephant\u2019s path<\/p>\n At Torre de Cope, a single trackway<\/a> runs about 9 feet (2.75 m) across a sloped dune layer.<\/p>\n Four rounded prints of Palaeoloxodon antiquus measure 16 to 20 inches (40 to 50 cm), and spacing points to hip height about 7.5 feet (2.3 m).<\/p>\n They tied the trackmaker to Palaeoloxodon antiquus, estimating from one trackway an age over 30 years and mass near 5,700 pounds (2.6 tons).<\/p>\n Trackways store more than footprints because they preserve stride, direction, and how a body moved over uneven ground.<\/p>\n The scientists applied morphometrics, measuring shapes and sizes in a consistent way, to compare tracks with living elephants.<\/p>\n Even with careful measurements, soft sand blurs toe details, so the analysis works best for broad identifications and age classes.<\/p>\n In Calblanque, a 5-foot trail (1.5 m) holds ten paired prints linked to a mustelid, a family including martens and otters.<\/p>\n The nearly circular marks sit in pairs along the line, a pattern that fits slow steps near a water source.<\/p>\n Because the trackway lacks bones or teeth, it adds a rare hint of small predators sharing the same coastal forest.<\/p>\n Signs of a coastal wolf<\/p>\n A single pawprint in Calblanque measures about 4 by 3 inches (10 by 8 cm), and it preserves sharp claw marks.<\/p>\n That shape matches a canid track, and the authors point to wolves like Canis lupus in wooded habitats.<\/p>\n One isolated print cannot confirm a pack, but it shows predators moved through the dunes alongside herbivores.<\/p>\n Deer migration paths<\/p>\n Other tracks in Calblanque show bifid impressions<\/a>, impressions split into two hoof halves, up to 4 inches (10 cm) long.<\/p>\n The team found the shapes compatible with red deer, Cervus elaphus, and their westward orientation suggests steady travel.<\/p>\n Direction data matter because dunes change fast, so repeated headings can mark a seasonal route rather than random wandering.<\/p>\n Young horse recorded<\/p>\n A separate Calblanque trail records a young equid with prints about 4 by 5 inches (10 by 12 cm). Researchers connect the track to Equus ferus, and they note it as the most recent trace for the region.<\/p>\n The finding widens the local species list, but a single short trail cannot reveal herd size or behavior.<\/p>\n Vegetation near the coast helped anchor dunes during MIS 5e, supporting a mixed forest community that included both predators and grazers like Palaeoloxodon antiquus.<\/p>\n Roots can also cause rhizoturbation, roots that churn sediments and blur older layers, which hides parts of a track.<\/p>\n Because shrubs both preserve and disturb impressions, the best surfaces appear where plants briefly covered dunes before sand buried them.<\/p>\n Field teams used photogrammetry<\/a>, building three-dimensional models from overlapping photos, to capture track shapes before weathering.<\/p>\n Software can enhance tiny ridges and depth changes, letting researchers measure pace and direction later on a screen.<\/p>\n Digital records also let managers monitor damage, although they cannot replace the original surface for future techniques.<\/p>\n University of Lisbon researchers propose that there was once an ecological corridor<\/a>, which is a route animals use between habitats, along Murcia\u2019s coastline during humid weather phases.<\/p>\n Forests near dunes offered food and shade, while flat beaches gave large walkers like Palaeoloxodon antiquus a firm path for seasonal movement.<\/p>\n \u201cThe straight-tusked elephant tracks suggest an episodic presence in the coast, possibly related to seasonal congregation or transit,\u201d said Neto de Carvalho.<\/p>\n Humans and Palaeoloxodon antiquus<\/p>\n Researchers note<\/a> that Palaeoloxodon antiquus bones in Ice Age sites can show anthropogenic modifications, evidence of human-made marks on bone.<\/p>\n In southeastern Iberia, the authors see a geographic overlap between elephant routes<\/a> and Homo neanderthalensis sites near the shore.<\/p>\n That overlap hints at dependable hunting grounds, but tracks alone cannot prove contact, kill sites, or how often people followed herds.<\/p>\n Across the Murcia tracksites, footprints capture a brief coastal community, from a big elephant to smaller hunters and grazers.<\/p>\n Future surveys may find longer trackways inland, while erosion control and digital archives keep today\u2019s exposed layers available for study.<\/p>\n The study is published in Quaternary Science Reviews<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u2014\u2013<\/p>\n Like what you read? Subscribe to our newsletter<\/a> for engaging articles, exclusive content, and the latest updates.<\/p>\n Check us out on EarthSnap<\/a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls<\/a> and Earth.com.<\/p>\n \u2014\u2013<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Murcia tracksites confirm that straight-tusked elephants, Palaeoloxodon antiquus, crossed Spain\u2019s southeastern coastal corridor about 125,000 years ago,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":207753,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[2594,85,46,141],"class_list":["post-207752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-animals","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207752"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207752\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\n<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Prehistoric](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/elephant-footprints_prehistoric_Mustelipeda-aff-punctata-Kordos_QS_1s.webp.webp\")
<\/a>Prehistoric elephant footprints of Palaeoloxodon antiquus. Mustelipeda aff. punctata Kordos. Credit: Quaternary Science Reviews (2025). Click image to enlarge.Small predators also present<\/p>\n![\"Palaeoloxodon](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/elephant-footprints_prehistoric_Mustelipeda-aff-punctata-Kordos_ichnosite-2_QS_1s.webp.webp\")
<\/a>Palaeoloxodon antiquus prehistoric elephant tracks found in the ichnosite 2. Credit: Quaternary Science Reviews (2025). Click image to enlarge.Beaches guided movement<\/p>\n