PALEONTOLOGY 



IN the domain of vertebrate palaeontology Nottingham is a county 

 which has but small claim to distinction, very few fossil forms from 

 within its limits having apparently been recorded in scientific publi- 

 cations. Of these ' finds ' the majority are mentioned in a pamphlet 

 by Professor J. W. Carr, published at Nottingham in 1893 for the 

 meeting of the British Association at that city, under the title of A Con- 

 tribution to the Geology and Natural History of Nottinghamshire, To that 

 gentleman the present writer is also indebted for information with regard 

 to other fossils from the county in the museum at Nottingham. 



Commencing with the remains of Pleistocene mammals, it has first 

 of all to be mentioned that one of the well known Creswell caves lies on 

 the Nottinghamshire side of the river, although the others are in Derby- 

 shire. The cave in question is known as the Church Hole, and an 

 account of its excavation and the remains discovered is given by the 

 Rev. J. M. Mello. 1 The species of mammals discovered in this cave 

 include the cave hyaena (Hycena crocuta spelcea), badger (Me/es meles), 

 wolf (Canis lupus), brown bear (Ursus arctus], common hare (Lepus euro- 

 pceus), reindeer (Rangifer tarandus), extinct Irish deer or ' Irish elk ' 

 (Cervus giganteus), the Pleistocene bison (Eos priscus), wild horse (Equus 

 caballusfossilis), woolly rhinoceros (Rhinoceros antiquitatis] and the hairy 

 elephant, or mammoth (Elephas primigenius). Among these the remains 

 of the horse were especially abundant. As in the case of other caves, 

 the bones of the larger mammals are presumed to have been dragged 

 into Church Hole by the hyaenas, which made it their den. If this be 

 correct, it indicates two features by which the extinct cave hyaenas 

 differed from their South African representatives. For according to the 

 reports of travellers and sportsmen the African spotted hyaena does not 

 dwell in caves, while its food consists mainly of antelopes and not of the 

 bones of such large animals as elephants and rhinoceroses. 



Another locality for Pleistocene mammals, lying on the borderland 

 of Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, is the Pleasley Vale near Mansfield. 

 The bone cavern known as the Yew Tree Cave is, however, just on 

 the north side of the river Meden, and therefore in Derbyshire. From 

 that cave, it may be mentioned, has been obtained the imperfect skull 

 of a lynx (Fe/is lynx), now preserved in the museum at Nottingham. 

 Other mammals recorded as fossils from Pleasley Vale whether belong- 



1 Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. xxxiii. 585 (1877). 

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