Twelve million years ago, a catastrophic eruption at Yellowstone buried North America in ash, creating a landscape of devastation. However, new fossil evidence shows that large, bone-crushing dogs not only survived this disaster but actively stalked the remains of other animals, including rhinoceroses. The discovery challenges assumptions about how apex predators respond to ecological collapse.
“Rhino Pompeii” Yields Unexpected Clues
The footprints were found at the Ashfall Fossil Beds in Nebraska, a site nicknamed “Rhino Pompeii” due to its remarkably preserved skeletons of Teleoceras rhinos, victims of the Yellowstone eruption. Until now, paleontologists hadn’t found definitive proof of large carnivores at the site, despite the abundance of prey. The newly discovered tracks, measuring up to 3.2 inches long, match those of extinct canids like Aelurodon taxoides and Epicyon saevus. These predators were powerful enough to crush bones, much like modern hyenas.
A Volcanic Winter and a Predator’s Resilience
The Yellowstone supereruption would have been apocalyptic. According to Ashley Poust, a curator at the University of Nebraska State Museum, ash rained down over 1,000 miles, choking the skies, burying vegetation, and suffocating animals. The sheer scale of the event would have created a prolonged “volcanic winter,” making survival exceptionally difficult. Yet, the dog footprints are layered above the rhino skeletons, indicating that the predators outlived their prey in at least some areas.
Why This Matters: Ecological Collapse and Survival
The survival of top predators after such a catastrophic event is unusual. Food chains collapse when primary producers and herbivores are wiped out, leaving carnivores with no sustenance. Poust suggests the dogs may have scavenged buried carcasses, essentially using the disaster zone as a long-term food cache. This raises questions about predator adaptability and whether some species can exploit extreme conditions better than previously thought.
Publicly Visible Evidence
The footprints, uncovered in 2014 and 2023, are not a secret. Visitors to Ashfall Fossil Beds State Historical Park can see them firsthand, and the research team has even conducted laser scans of the tracks in public view. The University of Nebraska State Museum also lists Epicyon among the animals preserved at the site.
A Prehistoric Watering Hole Turned Graveyard
Before the eruption, northeastern Nebraska resembled the African savanna, with a seasonal lake attracting diverse wildlife. Rhinos, camels, horses, turtles, and birds all gathered at this watering hole. The volcanic fallout transformed this oasis into a mass grave, preserving a snapshot of life just moments before it was extinguished. The dog tracks suggest that even in this aftermath, some predators thrived by exploiting the abundance of decaying prey.
The full findings are still under peer review, but the evidence suggests that the Yellowstone eruption didn’t just create a landscape of death; it also presented an opportunity for certain predators to survive and even flourish in the chaos.
