West Runton Elephant

Cromer Museum Brief History Guide no: 17 £1.25p The West Runton Elephant Steppe Mammoth Mammuthus trogontherii By Nigel Larkin 1 The West Runton Freshwater Bed is the dark band at the bottom of the cliffs 2 twigs and small mammal Discovery bones, through medium sized The story begins on 13 Decem- deer, horse and rhino bones to ber 1990 when, following a the huge bones of elephants stormy night, local residents that roamed our country in Harold and Margaret Hems took herds back then. There have a walk on the beach. They been many species of elephant found a large bone partly ex- living in England over the last posed at the bottom of the few millions of years. The West cliffs, and contacted Norfolk Runton Elephant, living when Museums Service. It was identi- the Freshwater Bed was laid fied as a pelvic bone of a large down, was the Steppe Mam- elephant. Just over a year later moth Mammuthus trogontherii . after another storm, several more huge bones were uncov- This was the largest species of ered. This was obviously a find elephant that has ever lived, of major significance, and in and the largest animal ever to January 1992 the first explora- have lived on land except for tory excavation took place. the very biggest dinosaurs. Once the results of this had Standing four metres high at its been evaluated, a second ma- shoulder, it would have jor 3 month excavation fol- weighed about ten tons – twice lowed in 1995. the weight of any male African elephant you would find today. Background It is the largest elephant skele- The “West Runton Freshwater ton ever found and is the oldest Bed” is a five-foot thick layer of elephant skeleton to have been organic-rich mud deposited by found in the UK (some individ- a medium sized river about six ual bones or teeth from else- hundred thousand (600,000) to where are older, but none make seven hundred thousand years even a partial skeleton). The ago, long before the last ice West Runton Elephant skeleton age. This deposit, just east of is also the best example of this West Runton on the North Nor- species ever to have been folk coast, is full of all sorts of found. Previously the best were fossils. These range from thou- two partial skeletons, one in sands of small snail shells, 3 Germany and the other in Rus- mains of other fossils in the de- sia, both only about 10-15% posit. Not only were all of the complete. The WRE skeleton is bones carefully drawn and plot- about 85% complete. ted on maps (using a laser- based theodolite) but special- Because the West Runton ists from all around the country Freshwater Bed is the “type and abroad came to collect pol- site” for the Cromerian Intergla- len, macroflora, microfauna cial it is the benchmark that all and sediments. They studied all other countries in Europe use aspects of the stratigraphy, when studying their own de- mineralogy and chemistry of posits of a similar age. That is the site. Ten tonnes of soil were why when the first bones of the carefully removed, a trowel-full elephant were discovered after at a time, to be sieved for the storms in the winters of 1990 tiny bones of frogs, newts, liz- and 1992, the Norfolk Muse- ards, snakes and small mam- ums and Archaeology Service mals and birds. applied for funding to excavate the site more fully to unearth On page eight you can find a the rest of what this very impor- list of all the animals that were tant find. It was clearly also a found. Many of them are now good chance to study other as- extinct - but some, like rhinos, pects of the site in more detail. hyaenas, wolves and bears, To find such a complete skele- sound exotic. Many people ask ton during the 1995 excava- “was the climate much warmer tion, so well preserved and with back then?” The answer is so many other bones, was a “no”, The climate was identical very welcome surprise. to what we have now. We know this from all the pollen studied Excavations and other clues such as the The remaining skeleton was presence of amphibians, snails excavated over a three-month and small mammals that can period by staff of the Norfolk only live within a narrow range Archaeological Unit, who paid of temperatures. The animals meticulous attention to every appear exotic to us now be- detail when recording the re- cause since the time of the 4 West Runton Elephant we have flexibility, but too young to be suffered the effects of several strengthened by the fossilisa- ice ages that have reduced spe- tion process. They are simply cies diversity, followed by a rise the brittle mineral matrix of in sea levels making Britain an bone, and surprisingly fragile. island and creating a barrier to Unfortunately, they are also animals that might have re- very big and heavy. Each femur colonised our land from is 1.5 metres long, and all the Europe. Then mankind arrived main limb bones are close in in Britain about 500,000 years size to those of large saurapod ago and hunted some species dinosaurs. Because of this fra- to extinction. gility and weight, the bones needed support when they It is rare for animals to be bur- were uncovered during the ex- ied in conditions that are just cavation. They were carefully right for fossilisation. The mil- wrapped in tissue paper and lions of fossils in museums all foil, before being encased in around the world are but a tiny plaster of Paris, and stiffened fraction of all the species that by large splints. On the last day have ever lived. Even when an of the dig the well-preserved animal is buried in the right skull and tusk were lifted out conditions it takes millions of from the bed by crane, in a spe- years for the material to truly cially made supporting cradle. fossilise – to “turn to stone”. A Then the hole was filled back buried bone can retain organic in. All the bones and the tusks material (like collagen, giving it were put on pallets and taken some strength and flexibility from the site by lorry to the con- and maybe some DNA!) for up servation laboratory at Gres- to forty thousand years. But the senhall, Norfolk. elephant remains are about 600,000 - 700,000 years old. Conservation Therefore the West Runton Ele- In the laboratory, the protective phant and all the other bones plaster jackets were carefully found with it are what we call removed, piece by piece. The “sub-fossil”. Old enough to sediment and soil was removed have lost their strength and with brushes, small dental 5 tools, pins, scalpels and fine and so heavy (most need two jets of high-pressure air con- people to move them) but also taining slightly abrasive pow- very weak (because they are der. All this work was done un- only sub-fossil bone) they der a microscope (even the big- could easily be damaged by gest bones) to ensure we would poor handling. To solve the not damage the surfaces of the problem permanent, rigid jack- bones. During the cleaning ets were made for them to lie process the fine details became in. A soft archival foam layer is clear - such as the tooth-marks placed closest to the bone, and droppings of the spotted with a rigid resin jacket sup- hyaenas that were scavenging porting it beneath. When a from the elephant carcass. We bone is to be moved, or turned kept a photographic record as over, another jacket is bolted to we worked and made copious the upper surface, the bone notes. We could soon tell how moved or turned, and the up- old the elephant was when it permost jacket taken off again. prematurely died, and, as the The heaviest bones are stored interesting pathology of the dis- on trolleys. eased and deformed right knee area slowly revealed itself, the Storage reason why became clear. All the bones are stored in a climate-controlled environ- Cataloguing ment. If the temperature or hu- After all the bones were midity levels varied greatly the cleaned, and repaired where specimens would react by ex- necessary, they were described panding and contracting and catalogued. Small bones slightly. If this occurred more were then stored in trays or than a few times the material boxes of archival quality (i.e. would begin to break down they will last for many decades, physically, and the elephant and do not contain harmful material would be irreversibly chemicals), in specially cut damaged. Had we been able to nests in archival foam. The lar- ger bones posed a problem. Being so big (up to 1.5m long) 6 years, it might be well fossilised and less vulnerable! But had we left it there at West Runton the sea would have destroyed it within just a decade. 7 8 But vulnerable! andless ised well fossil- be might it years, fifty another million for ground the elephant in the leave Mammals found in the West Runton Forest Bed Extinct Worldwide Extinct in the UK Still present in the U.K. Mammuthus trogontherii (steppe- Russian desman hedgehog mammoth - the West Runton Elephant), Barbary macaque common mole Sorex savini and Sorex runtonensis Common hamster hare (shrews), Talpa minor (extinct mole), Northern vole bank vole Trogontherium cuvieri (giant beaver-like Wolf wood mouse rodent), Pliomys episcopalis (vole), Mi- Spotted hyaena weasel momys savini (water vole), Pitymys ar- Common vole stoat valoides and gregaloides (pine voles), Wild boar (was polecat Ursus deningeri (extinct medium-sized present until pine marten within it decade.

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