PALAEONTOLOGY 



Within the limits of the county of Durham vertebrate remains are chiefly confined to two groups 

 of strata widely sundered in geological time, namely to modern, Prehistoric and apparently Pleistocene 

 deposits on the one hand, and to those of Permian and Carboniferous age on the other. Needless 

 to say, the fossils from the Palaeozoic formations largely outweigh in point of interest those from the 

 superficial deposits, and among the former the most important are those from the Permian, which 

 include several forms first described on the evidence of Durham specimens, and some of which are 

 at present unknown beyond the limits of that county. Nevertheless, the remains from the super- 

 ficial formations are by no means lacking in interest, the most noticeable being those of the lynx, 

 the elk, and the great auk. No vertebrate remains have been obtained from the Trias of the 

 county, this formation being, as usual, unfossiliferous. 



The great historian of the fossil vertebrates of the county is Mr. Richard Howse, whose 

 Catalogue of the Local Fossils in the Museum of the Natural History Society of Northumber- 

 land, Durham, and Newcastle-on-Tyne, 1 has been of the greatest assistance in the compilation 

 of the present account. 



Apart from the bones of various species of domesticated mammals, such as the dog, goat, and 

 horse, disinterred during the excavation of Roman camps, the most modern vertebrate fossils 

 discovered in the county appear to be those from estuarine silts or old lake-beds, belonging 

 apparently cither to the Historic or the Prehistoric epochs. Among such remains, Mr. Howse 

 records those of the red deer (Cervus elaphus) from silt eighteen feet below the surface in Jarrow 

 Dock and Cobble Dene Dock, as well as from the silt of the bed of the Tyne ; similar remains 

 being also recorded from West Hartlepool, North Bailey, and from Durham itself. Of the roe 

 (Capreolus capreolus) antlers have been found in the Roman camps. More interest attaches to the 

 remains of the elk (A Ices alces) from beneath the peat at Hartlepool, and at Mainsforth, near Sedgefield,* 

 since remains of this animal are very rare in Britain, where they appear to be quite unknown in 

 deposits which can be definitely assigned to the Pleistocene epoch. The wild ox, or aurochs (Bos 

 taunts primigenius) has left its remains in the silt of Jarrow Dock, as well as in that of the Tyne, and 

 beneath peat in various localities in the county ; and bones of the domesticated Celtic shorthorn 

 the miscalled Bos longifrtms are likewise reported from Jarrow and Hartlepool. Remains of the 

 wild boar (Sus scrofa ferus) have been met with in river-silt, as well as in Roman stations, and a 

 skull is recorded from North Bailey. Boars' tusks, together with remains of the dog, the badger, 

 and the Celtic shorthorn, have also been obtained from the cave at Heathery Burn, near Stanhope, 

 in Weardale, which was explored by Canon Greenwell, and yielded implements of the bronze 

 period. 



Much greater interest attaches to the remains of the great auk (Aha, or Plautus, impennis) 

 discovered in cave-deposits at Marsden, in the Cleadon Hills, and described in 1880 by Mr. Howse.* 

 Up to the year 1890, at any rate, these were the only remains of this bird discovered in England. 

 They were associated with those of man, the badger (Melts melts), the fox (Pulpes vulpes), and other 

 species. 



Next in order may be considered the remains from fissures in the Mountain Limestone at 

 Teesdale, which may or may not be approximately of the same age as the ordinary cavern-bones 

 from other parts of the country. By far the most interesting of these belong to the lynx (Felis 

 [Lynx] lynx), a species known elsewhere in Britain only from the Yew-Tree Cave, Pleasley Vale, 

 on the borders of Derbyshire and Nottingham. These have been described by the late 

 Mr. William Davies. 4 Other mammals of which the remains have been found at Teesdale include 

 the wild cat (Felis catus), the wolf (Cants lupus), the fox, the otter (Lutra lutra), the roe, the red 

 deer, the wild boar, and the horse. The exploration of the Teesdale fissure by the late Messrs. 



1 Nat. Hist. Trans. Northumb. and Durham, x. 227 (1889). 



s Sec Woodward and Sherborn Brit. Fuss. Penetrate, p. 312 ; Chirdon Burn, North Tync, where an 

 antler of this species has been obtained, it here said to be in Durham, instead of Northumberland. 

 8 Nat. Hist. Trans. Northumb. and Durham, vii. 361. 

 * Geel. Mag. (z) vii. 346 (1880). 



3 1 



