In the age of global climate change and the ensuing growing concern about future implications for the planet, scientists are working in a joint effort to better understand Earth systems. Coastal dunes present numerous benefits for the 40% of the global population living in coastal areas and for their ecosystems but also represent a potential desertification threat if reactivated. The understanding of the triggering factors for dune instability is thus capital to better predict their future behaviour and adapt coastal management programs. The project of this thesis originates in the controversy around some coastal “chevrons” described in the Bahamas. These U-shape landforms date from the Last Interglacial, stage of the Quaternary that was characterised by a higher than present global average temperature (+ 1-2 °C) and a higher sea level (+ 6-9 m.a.s.l.). The discussion on their genesis opposes a dramatic interpretation of these “chevrons”, linked with superstorms related to warmer and unstable climate conditions, to a more classic one suggesting drier and windier conditions in the Caribbean allowing the dunes formation. Considering the lack of clarity around the definition and the use of the term “chevron”, I first reviewed the literature mentioning them. The term “chevrons” has been used independently to describe coastal parabolic dunes in the Bahamas, Madagascar, and Western Australia where they have been correlated to wind, giant storms, and tsunamis caused by asteroid impacts. In each of these countries, a debate arose among geoscientists on the depositional processes and the validity of the terminology. This review provides with a complete and comprehensive summary of the problematic and demonstrates than “chevrons” are coastal parabolic dunes of aeolian origin.