Vrtare Male is a

pit cave A pit cave, shaft cave or vertical cave—or often simply called a pit (in the US) and pothole or pot (in the UK); jama in Slavic languages scientific and colloquial vocabulary (borrowed since early research in the Western Balkan Dinaric Alpin ...

located near

Dramalj Dramalj is a small fishing village in Croatia. It is part of the town of Crikvenica, extending from the neighborhood Crni mol to the tourist complex Kačjak. A tourism boom in the nearby Crikvenica area and the rest of the Croatian Littoral in th ...

, a seaside village in

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

. Its depth is believed to be , with around submerged. It was first explored in 1966 by the Mountaineering Society Velebit. In 1996, Dragan Pelić, a photographer and spelaeologist from nearby

Crikvenica Crikvenica () is a town in west Croatia, located on the Adriatic in the Primorje-Gorski Kotar County. Names The names of the town in various languages include: * * * * Geography Crikvenica is located southeast of Rijeka and is the largest s ...

, descended into the cave and found a rare

Decapoda The Decapoda or decapods, from Ancient Greek δεκάς (''dekás''), meaning "ten", and πούς (''poús''), meaning "foot", is a large order of crustaceans within the class Malacostraca, and includes crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, a ...

specimen, which was confirmed by Croatian spelaeologist Branko Jalžić. This prompted further cave expeditions, starting in 2005, and the establishment of a

protected area Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural or cultural values. Protected areas are those areas in which human presence or the exploitation of natural resources (e.g. firewood ...

around Vrtare Male. The cave is home to the freshwater cave prawn ('' Troglocaris anophthalmus''),

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

to Dinaric

karst Karst () is a topography formed from the dissolution of soluble carbonate rocks such as limestone and Dolomite (rock), dolomite. It is characterized by features like poljes above and drainage systems with sinkholes and caves underground. Ther ...

. Vrtare Male is part of the National Ecological Network of Croatia. It is registered under the code HR3000257, and potential for inclusion in

Natura 2000 Natura 2000 is a network of nature protection areas in the territory of the European Union. It is made up of Special Areas of Conservation and Special Protection Areas designated under the Habitats Directive and the Birds Directive, respectiv ...

. In 2009, it was proclaimed a geological-palaeontological

natural monument A natural monument is a natural or cultural feature of outstanding or unique value because of its inherent rarity, representative of aesthetic qualities, or cultural significance. They can be natural geological and geographical features such as w ...

. The area under protection covers around .

Expeditions and exhibitions

In 2007,

Croatian Natural History Museum The Croatian Natural History Museum () is the oldest and biggest natural history museum and the main body for natural history research, preservation and collection in Croatia. Located on Dimitrije Demeter Street in Gornji Grad, one of the oldes ...

organized a palaeontological expedition in Vrtare Male, led by Jalžić, recovering the remains of several specimens of

Pleistocene megafauna The Late Pleistocene to the beginning of the Holocene saw the extinction of the majority of the world's megafauna, typically defined as animal species having body masses over , which resulted in a collapse in faunal density and diversity acro ...

on the submerged cave floor. The specimens included, among others, a cave lion, one of the largest discovered at the time; a specimen of southern mammoth, a

cave bear The cave bear (''Ursus spelaeus'') is a prehistoric species of bear that lived in Europe and Asia during the Pleistocene and became extinct about 24,000 years ago during the Last Glacial Maximum. Both the word ''cave'' and the scientific name '' ...

, a

Merck's rhinoceros ''Stephanorhinus kirchbergensis'', also known as Merck's rhinoceros (or the less commonly, the forest rhinoceros) is an extinct species of rhinoceros belonging to the genus ''Stephanorhinus'' that lived from the end of the Early Pleistocene (arou ...

, a

steppe bison The steppe bison (''Bison'' ''priscus'', also less commonly known as the steppe wisent and the primeval bison) is an extinct species of bison which lived from the Middle Pleistocene to the Holocene. During the Late Pleistocene, it was widely dist ...

and

dire wolves The dire wolf (''Aenocyon dirus'' ) is an extinct species of canine which was native to the Americas during the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene epochs (125,000–10,000 years ago). The species was named in 1858, four years after the first ...

, as well as extinct relatives of

fallow deer Fallow deer is the common name for species of deer in the genus ''Dama'' of subfamily Cervinae. There are two living species, the European fallow deer (''Dama dama''), native to Europe and Anatolia, and the Persian fallow deer (''Dama mesopotamic ...

and

horse The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 mi ...

s. The animals were exhibited in 2009 and 2010 in the Crikvenica City Museum and the Croatian Natural History Museum. ''Panthera Spelaea'', a documentary film about Vrtare Male directed by Marin Leko, accompanied the opening of the exhibition in Crikvenica. Another expedition to Vrtare Male, as well as neighbouring caves Vrtare Vele and Vrtare Nove, was organized in July 2011. A total of 184 Pleistocene fossils were collected and stored by the Crikvenica City Museum. The neighbouring caves are thought to have been originally part of a bigger cave system, which was fractioned in a catastrophe during the

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( ; referred to colloquially as the ''ice age, Ice Age'') is the geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fin ...

. Similarly, the cave entrance is thought to have been larger than today, as large animals have been found in the cave.

References

External links

{{Commons category, Fossils from Vrtare male cave in Dramalj
Catalogue Lion's Pit
from the exhibition of fossils in Croatian Natural History Museum and Crikvenica City Museum 1966 in science Caves of Croatia Limestone caves Landforms of Primorje-Gorski Kotar County Karst formations of Croatia Tourist attractions in Primorje-Gorski Kotar County Cave bear

Expeditions and exhibitions

See also

References

External links