A fossilized coral reef from 38 million years ago
These are the Toll Caves (coves del Toll), located in Moià, Central Catalonia. But 38 million years ago, this was under the waters of an inner sea.
In this point, there used to be a coral reef which was home to many other species. The sea disappeared and the coral reef was fossilized, becoming the rock. Over time, the rain water penetrating into the rock created 1,148 meters of pits, galleries, and rooms, turning the rock into a cave.
Later, in the Quaternary (the last 2.5 million years), the cave was used as a shelter by prehistoric animals such as cave bears, cave hyenas, and cave lions, in an area populated with wild horses and woolly rhinos. For this reason, it's considered one of Europe's most important palaeontological sites, sometimes called the "Palace of Quaternary Fauna". The palaeologic excavations have found the remains of 35 different mammal species, some of which are now extinct.
Prehistoric humans also used the cave. Archaeologists have found remains of human activity since the Middle Palaeolithic until the Bronze Age. The most significant human activity is the Neolithic burials (6,000 years ago).
After that, a landslide covered the southern entrance to the cave, meaning that the cave remained hidden and untouched for over 3,000 years. This is the reason why palaeontologists found so much information, because nobody had dug nor moved around the strata. The cave was rediscovered in 1952.
This is not an isolated case. The same fossilized coral reef is found in the nearby Toixoneres cave, which eventually also became home to cave bears, wolves, mammoths, cave hyenas, and other animals. Neanderthal humans also lived in this cave between 200,000 and 35,000 years ago. In 2023, archaeologists found the bones of a 4th Neanderthal, a young person who lived 52,000 years ago. In this case, the most surprising thing is that the Neanderthal's bones showed marks of having been cut with human-made tools, pointing at a possible case of cannibalism. It's not the first evidence of Neanderthal cannibalism, but it is the first evidence of it found in Catalonia.
Photos from Coves del Toll, GeoParc de la Catalunya Central and Turisme a Catalunya. Information source: GeoParc de la Catalunya Central and Parc Prehistòric de les Coves del Toll.
