Ural Federal University: The Place of the Natural Entrance to the Tavrida Cave Will Help Scientists Understand Its Origin
Researchers at Ural Federal University, together with colleagues from the Crimean Federal University and the Russian Academy of Sciences continue excavations in the Tavrida Cave. A number of important findings have already been made, including the discovery of fossil rodent bones, which have never been found in Russia before. Whether the cave can store sensational secrets and what the scientists themselves most want to unearth, the scientists discussed this on the air of Sputnik in Crimea.
According to Anton Kochnev, a junior researcher at the Ural Federal University, scientists’ efforts are currently focused around the search for a natural entrance to the ancient cave.
“This year we are working in a small relation, looking for the entrance, which used to be natural. Of course, the work is complicated by the fact that there is a lot of soil on top, which we are not interested in. The soil is removed by hand, we have to take it out, so the work is carried out not quickly, ” said the scientist.
Determining the location of the entrance will help us understand how the cave was formed. In addition, this is where the most sensational finds can be found.
“If there was an ancient man, then most likely he did not go far, he was somewhere near the entrance, conducted some activity there or ended up in the cave as a victim of a predator. Of course, it would be interesting to suddenly see a man there. It would be a unique phenomenon, which would complicate the life of scientists, but it is possible. Although, of course, these are just hypotheses, they are not supported by anything yet, and we cannot create sensations out of the blue. We wouldn’t want everyone to wait for a man to be found there,” suggests Kochnev, but emphasizes the strict hypotheticality of his words.
His colleague, Dmitry Gimranov, senior researcher at the Laboratory of Natural Science Methods in Humanitarian Research at Ural Federal University, specifies that by this time a large number of important discoveries have already been made in the cave.
“The number of predators is off the charts: wolves, lynxes, and two species of saber-toothed cats. Many bones of ungulates: elephants, rhinos, antelopes, bulls. This year we managed to find a small relative of the ermine, its progenitor. We knew of the existence of this species from publications in Western Europe, but in Russia have not yet been found. Completely new species, I think, are also realistic to describe,” says the scientist.