Quarry find reveals hippos and hyenas once roamed Norfolk. From The Guardian:
Posted on July 1, 2004 02:52 AM. Filed under: history & archaeology.Giant hippos wallowed in the steaming rivers of Norfolk 600,000 years ago, while packs of hyenas prowled the banks, looking for carrion.
A chance find in an undisclosed quarry 10 miles from the modern coast has provided scientists with an unexpected snapshot of Britain in a warm spell between two ice ages.
The ancient hippos would have weighed six or seven tonnes, compared with the four-tonners that live in the rivers of Africa today. Insect fossils preserved along with plants in the same sediments show that summer temperatures in Britain may have been 2-3C warmer than today.
"To find two hippopotamuses together is very unusual, but to find evidence of the land surface around them is exceptional. The excavation site provides a unique opportunity to study an environment that we believe has never been recognised before and that, if we don't act quickly, could be lost forever," said Simon Parfitt, of the Natural History Museum in London.
The great beasts would have had huge, prominent eyes which served as periscopes in a river system which would once have flowed from Norfolk into Wales. [continue]