The cave was investigated in 1987 under the direction of Emmanuel Anati, professor of paleontology at the University of Salento.[8] His team of Italian archaeologists from the Centro Camuno di Studi Preistorici discovered Palaeolithic cave art depicting human hands, anthropozoomorphic, and several animal designs from underneath the stalagmatic formations. Some depict elephants which have been extinct in the Maltese region since the Pleistocene. Most of these finds were destroyed due to recent[when?] vandalism.