Discoveries in Cueva del Llano Reveal Fuerteventura Was Once a

A humid island 9,000 years ago

About 9,000 years ago, during the Middle Holocene, the island was far more humid. A new study titled “Unexpected Climate Revealed by a Mid‑Holocene Bird Assemblage from Fuerteventura (Canary Islands)”, published in the MDPI quarterly journal, shows that today’s Fuerteventura – the second‑largest Canary Island – is a very dry place with scarce rainfall, but it was not always so.

Millennia ago the Earth was up to 7 °C warmer than today, and the now‑arid Canary island was a lush green paradise filled with lakes, forests and a remarkable biodiversity.

From desert dunes to freshwater habitats

Today the island is extremely dry, covered in sand dunes, and receives only 100–150 mm of rain per year – a classic desert climate. Yet the fossils examined indicate that in the early Holocene the island presented a radically different picture:

• Freshwater lagoons and ponds
• Extensive forests with dense understory
• Rich flora and fauna

The researchers explain that these conditions persisted until the climate cooled and weather patterns shifted, causing the lakes to disappear, the forests to wither, and the island to become the inhospitable desert we know now. A similar transformation occurred in the Sahara, which thousands of years ago enjoyed a much milder climate.

Higher global temperatures at the time altered the Azores Anticyclone, leading to much more abundant rainfall and, consequently, a green and fertile environment. When the cold set in, drought and massive extinctions followed – a process almost identical to what later happened in North Africa.

“It seems likely that a lagoon or pond existed near the cave, around which extensive riparian vegetation developed. Likewise, forested areas with understory, where even torcecuellos (a type of shrub) grew, were probably also close to the cave,” the study notes.

Ornithological evidence of a wetter past

The bird record from Cueva del Llano suggests that, in the early Holocene, the dominant climate in the Canary Islands was much wetter than today. In Fuerteventura there were water bodies with riparian vegetation and forested zones of varying density with shrub understory.

Higher global temperatures may have triggered shifts in the annual movement of the Azores Anticyclone, promoting a more intense rain regime. This, in turn, supported a wider range of habitats and a significantly more diverse bird fauna than the present one.