Bones recovered from underwater caves can provide an extraordinary record of the distant past. "Backed by radiocarbon-dated bones, we tracked how skeletons accumulated and were modified over decades and centuries in underwater caves, then compared them to those buried in dry caves. The analysis showed that underwater caves can preserve skeletal remains exceptionally well. By examining how these more recent bones were deposited and altered, the researchers aimed to understand how fossils belonging to extinct megafauna may also have entered underwater caves. The study "Neotaphonomic characteristics of vertebrate site formation in underwater caves" has been published in PLOS One.