Scientists have announced they are planning to explore the Black Hills cave of South Dakota hoping that this will help them learn more about the region.
The mysterious cave was discovered back in 2004 by an employee at the National Park Service in the region of the Wind Cave National Park.
The cave was named Persistence and now researchers are planning to excavate it and discover its secrets.
After the entrance of the cave will be unearthed, a team of scientists from the Eastern Tennessee University will be in charge of analyzing the sediment and animal fossils that will be removed from the Black Hills cave.
According to the researchers, they have already discovered some bone remains that date back almost 11,000 years ago.
What’s even more intriguing is that the scientists have uncovered the fossils of three previously unknown species: the pine marten, pika and platygonus.
The scientists are intrigued by the findings because they say these species had never lived in the Black Hills area.
The experts hope that the fossils will provide clues on the migration patterns of extinct species and the climate change in that region.
According to the researchers, about forty years ago in a an area known as Hot Springs, close to the Black Hills region, scientists discovered a very well preserved wooly mammoth.
But experts say that mammoths went extinct about 26,000 years ago and the bone remains found at the entrance of the cave were approximately 11,000 years old.
So scientists hope that the future findings will help them better understand the changes that occurred during the Ice Age.
They also expect to unearth at least a hundred thousand fossils by the end of the excavation of the Black Hills cave, which will be finished by the end of this summer.
According to the experts, these fossils will shed light on the natural and climatic changes that occurred in that area.
However, the researchers from the National Park Service are keeping the location a secret to protect it from tourists and others who might be curious to explore it by themselves.
The researchers only disclosed that the entrance of the cave is approximately one third of a mile away from the edge of another cave known as the Wind Cave.
According to the scientists, the Black Hills cave could be very large, judging by the wind speed and the direction inside the cave’s entrance.
Image Source: sciencerecorder
