In the hills near Chiscau village in Romanian in the Apuseni Mountains lies a cave. This was a cave that is a truly amazing example of a story that can be told (and imagined) from evidence. There are many bones in this cave -- piles of them, in fact. We can tell that the bodies of the owners have been broken apart and that they must have had tragic, difficult, hard-fought deaths. How do we know? Well, the only intact skeleton is that of a bear, and he lies curled up deep within the cave, where his last slumber has been recorded for eternity. He consumed all the other animals in the cave (including other bears, I believe), before eventually succumbing to starvation and dying himself.
Something cataclysmic happened to trap the animals in the cave and I think its fascinating to imagine the last days of these animals. Terrified cattle or prey knowing that there was nowhere to go, no way of escaping their fate with a hungry bear in the same space. We can truly see the work of the food chain, but I like to imagine what a great scene it would have been while each animal was consumed, one by one!
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