The Anthropology Department at Texas A&M University posted an extremely interesting article on their website recently. The article, written by Michael Marshall, discusses advancements in the discovery of bear DNA that may be a clue to the age of Chauvet cave art. Found in south-east France in 1994, the art was named after its discoverer, Jean-Marie Chauvert. After passing through a narrow opening in the cave, one could see the historic cave walls covered in prehistoric paintings of animals.

As many attempted to date the majestic artifacts, controversy was created over the establishment of one unanimously agreed upon date. Radiocarbon dating determined the artifacts to be between 30,000 and 32,000 years old, an age which was most commonly accepted. If this date were to be correct, the Chauvert cave art would be twice the age of the Lascaux cave art in south-west France. While Lascaux acknowledged the dating of the Chauvert art to be correct, outside controversy continued.

In an attempt to once and for all solve the dating discrepancies, researchers turned to the actual content of the paintings. The bears portrayed on the cave walls would have had to be thriving at the time of the painting, said researcher Elalouf. Elalouf's team collected 38 samples of bear remains from the cave in order to evaluate their mitochondrial DNA. Elalouf's findings almost perfectly mirror the previous finding from the radiocarbon dating, placing the bear remains between 37,000 and 29,000 years of age. It is the hope of Elalouf and his team that once and for all the controversy may be put to rest through the help of the models in the paintings themselves.