THE NORTH RIDING PROJECT

Workmen quarrying roadstone in March 1821 broke into the cave and stumbled on evidence that Britain was once the natural home of the lion, the tiger, the rhinoceros, the hippopotamus and many other now alien creatures. Altogether twenty-two species of animal were identified. Dated broadly at 70,000 BC, they cover a huge span of time culminating in the onset of the last Ice Age. The relics of lion together with hippo, and of other animals such as the bison, the straight-tusked elephant, the giant deer and the slender-nosed rhino, indicate that at the beginning of the period Britain was a warm country, perhaps even sub-tropical. From the large number of hyena bones, it is believed that the cave was a hyenas’ den into which the scavengers had dragged the carcasses of other animals. The failure to find any complete skeleton in the cave also points to the hyena, which devours even its own dead.

Mead/Inside