PALEONTOLOGY 



TO the student of the past history of vertebrate animals Norfolk 

 is an area of especial interest, on account of the numerous 

 remains of mammals buried in the so-called Forest Bed and the 

 underlying Norwich Crag, both of which deposits are almost 

 restricted to the county. Vertebrate remains also occur in certain more 

 superficial deposits in the county, such as those of the old river valley at 

 Mundesley, as well as in the peat of the fens. 



With regard to the remains from the peat of the fens, with the 

 exception of the giant Irish deer, these belong entirely to species still 

 existing, although several of them have long since been exterminated 

 from Britain, while the aurochs, or wild ox, is now represented only 

 by its degenerate domesticated descendants. Of species still existing in 

 the county it will be unnecessary to say anything. The exterminated 

 mammals which have left their bones in the peat include the wolf {Cams 

 lupus) ^ the brown bear [Ursus arctus), the beaver {Castor Jiber), the wild 

 boar {Sus scrofaferus), the aurochs {Bos taurus primigenius), and the rein- 

 deer {Rangifer tarandus). Whether all these have been actually found in 

 the Norfolk fen deposits it is not easy to ascertain, although they 

 certainly occur in those of the adjacent county of Cambridge. A 

 splendid skull of the reindeer was, however, disinterred many years ago 

 from the peat of Bilney Moor near East Dereham. The late Sir R. 

 Owen recorded remains of the beaver at the base of the peat at Hilgay ; 

 with these were also found bones of the giant Irish deer, or ' elk ' 

 {Cervus giganteus), the typical race of which appears to have been 

 unknown at the epoch of the Forest Bed. The fens also yield remains 

 of the Celtic shorthorn, which seems to have been a domesticated 

 breed of cattle ; while antlers and bones of the red deer {Cervus elaphus) 

 and the roe {Capreolus vulgaris) — both species which have long since dis- 

 appeared from the county — are likewise met with. Very interesting is 

 the occurrence in the peat of the Norfolk fens of a wing-bone of a 

 pelican apparently nearly allied to the South European species. 



From the Mundesley river bed, which occupies a trough cut in the 

 lower portion of the glacial deposits, there was obtained some years ago 

 an imperfect shell of the European pond tortoise {Emys orbicularis), the 

 specimen in question being apparently the only evidence of the former 

 existence of that reptile in Britain. Bones of the red-throated diver 

 {Colymbus septentrionalis) have likewise been obtained at Mundesley. 



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