HOW TO MEET A MEGATHERIUM ON A STREET IN ENGLAND

The Iguanodon and Megatherium acting as supporters to the University of Cambridge's coat of arms, as carved above the archway of one of the entrances leading into the university's Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences (© Keith Edkins/Wikipedia – CC BY-SA 2.0 licence)

It's not every day that you can meet up with a Megatherium – one of South America's giant prehistoric ground sloths – on a street in England, or anywhere else, for that matter, unless that street just so happens to be Downing Street (no, not that one!), in the English university city of Cambridge. For if it is, you can walk along it and gaze up at a Megatherium as often and for as long as you want to. And not just at a Megatherium either, as it will always be in the company of another palaeontological stalwart, the famous ornithischian dinosaur known as Iguanodon. Bemused? Allow me to explain.

Front view of the Sedgwick Museum, situated directly above the university's Department of Earth Sciences (© Sebastian Ballard/Wikipedia – CC BY-SA 2.0 licence)

The Megatherium and Iguanodon in question are a pair of large, ornamental carvings flanking (or supporting, to use the correct heraldic term) the university's coat of arms present above the archway of one of the entrances to the Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences. Also referred to as the Sedgwick Memorial Museum, it is based in Downing Street, Cambridge, and constitutes the oldest of this university's eight academic museums.

Bronze statue of the Rev. Prof. Adam Sedgwick, created by eminent British sculptor Onslow Ford in 1901, which is on permanent display inside the museum at the junction of its two wings (© Sebastian Ballard/Wikipedia – CC BY-SA 2.0 licence)

This museum is named in honour of one of England's most celebrated geologists, the Reverend Prof. Adam Sedgwick (1785-1873), who spent his academic life working at the University of Cambridge, and it was built to honour him and to contain his very sizeable collections of geological and palaeontological specimens, as well as those of English naturalist Dr John Woodward (1665-1728). Woodward was a fellow geologist who had bequeathed to the university half of his collection of over 9,000 specimens amassed by him over 35 years (the university subsequently purchased the other half), together with funds to establish the Woodwardian Professorship of Geology there (and to which Sedgwick was in due course appointed).

Engravings of Dr John Woodward (left) and the Rev. Prof. Adam Sedgwick (right) (public domain)

These collections were all held at that time in what was then the university's Woodwardian Museum, established in 1728, but which would require a much greater capacity if it were to accommodate further additions. Hence the building of a bigger museum, honouring Sedgwick, was duly proposed. After several delays and false starts, the Sedgwick Museum's construction was finally approved on 16 February 1899, under Prof. Thomas Graham Jackson as architect, and was officially opened on 1 March 1904. Built at what was back then a notably expensive cost of £40,000, it now contains the collections of Woodward, Sedgwick, and countless other specimens too, currently totalling around 2 million rocks, minerals, and fossils.

Vintage engraving depicting how the interior of the then Woodwardian Museum once looked, with the skeleton of a giant deer (aka Irish elk) Megaloceros giganteus prominently displayed; it is still on display today in the Sedgwick Museum (public domain)

One of the Sedgwick Museum's most celebrated specimens on display is the very imposing replica cast of a complete skeleton of an Iguanodon bernissartensis, which was donated to the University of Cambridge by Brussels-based palaeontologist Louis Dollo during the late 1880s via King Leopold II of Belgium. At least 38 complete or near-complete Iguanodon skeletons had been recovered from a coal mine at the Belgian town of Bernissart in 1878. Nine of them were subsequently assembled as upright-standing mount specimens for display at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences in Brussels (a total of 30 Iguanodon specimens can be seen in its Museum of Natural Sciences today), and it was from one of these that the cast prominently on display at the Sedgwick Museum was taken. This famous exhibit in turn explains the choice of an Iguanodon as one of the two supporters carved above its Iguanodon/Megatherium archway.

Vintage illustration of a Bernissart Iguanodon skeleton assembled in upright stance (public domain)

True, the skeleton cast's upright, rearing stance is now deemed to be incorrect (modern-day palaeontological belief holds that Iguanodon adopted a more horizontal stance), but back then this was how science assumed that this very sizeable dinosaur form stood in life, and explains why the archway's Iguanodon carving is also depicted in upright stance (note too the dragonesque series of dorsal triangular spines running down the carving's back – another now-rejected morphological feature). Moreover, being directly inspired by this cast, the museum's logo has always been an upright bipedal Iguanodon as well (it would be too costly and troublesome to change it now, especially as the logo is so well known).

Modern-day artistic reconstruction of an Iguanodon in a more horizontal stance (public domain)

As for the Megatherium: the Sedgwick Museum's collection includes a partial Megatherium skeleton (and also a historic cast of it) that formed part of Sedgwick's original (1840) Woodwardian Museum collection. Moreover, the Sedgwick Museum is closely associated with Charles Darwin, as it houses a number of his scientifically-priceless specimens, and he famously discovered a Megatherium skeleton during his South American voyages, so the choice of this mega-mammal as the second supporter carved over the archway serves as a very apposite visual representation of this museum's Darwin links. In 2009, it curated a major public exhibition entitled Darwin the Geologist, to coincide with the Darwin bicentenary celebrations (Darwin was born in 1809). This exhibition focused upon his early geological research, and it displayed many of the specimens collected during his famous Beagle voyage.

Artistic reconstruction of the likely appearance in life of the Megatherium or giant ground sloth (public domain)

Incidentally, the Iguanodon and Megatherium are not the only prehistoric beasts depicted externally at the Sedgwick Museum. So too is the woolly mammoth Mammuthus primigenius, courtesy of the following detailed relief – present just to the left of the museum entrance whose archway bears the above-noted dinosaur and ground sloth carvings:

Woolly mammoth relief on the outer wall situated just to the left of the Iguanodon/Megatherium archway (© Vysotsky/Wikipedia – CC BY-SA 4.0 licence)

The Sedgwick Museum is open six days a week (closed on Sundays and some Bank Holidays), has free entry, and contains countless fascinating geological and palaeontological specimens on public display – click here to visit its official website for full details. So why not wander down Downing Street, introduce yourself to the Iguanodon and meet up with the Megatherium as they stand tall in stately support, before entering the wonderful world of our planet's distant past as encapsulated within this celebrated museum's spectacular array of exhibits and displays?

Side view of Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences showing woolly mammoth wall relief and entrance door bearing Iguanodon/Megatherium archway (© Google Earth Maps 2016 – reproduced here on a strictly educational, non-commercial Fair Use basis for review purposes only)

And if anyone can tell me the name of the sculptor who produced the Iguanodon and Megatherium carvings (and presumably the woolly mammoth relief too), I'd be extremely grateful, because I have so far been unable to discover this – many thanks indeed!

Close-up of the Sedgewick Museum's Iguanodon/Megatherium archway, revealing the exquisite detail of its two prehistoric supporters (© Vysotsky/Wikipedia – CC BY-SA 4.0 licence)

MOTTY AS AN ADULT? – IS THIS WHAT THE WORLD'S ONLY INTERGENERIC HYBRID ELEPHANT WOULD HAVE LOOKED LIKE HAD HE SURVIVED TO MATURITY?

Motty as a calf (above) and a photo-manipulated image (below) of what he may have looked like had he survived to adulthood (photo courtesy of Derek G. Lyon/Chester Zoo; photo-manipulation by Paul Willison of public-domain photograph of adult bull African elephant)

For 11 days, a little elephant calf called Motty was the world's first (and remains its only) intergeneric hybrid elephant, resulting from an unanticipated mating between a male African elephant Loxodonta africana and a female Asian elephant Elephas maximus at Chester Zoo, England, in July 1978. In my previous ShukerNature article (click here), the second of two documenting this truly unique animal (click here for my first one), I mentioned that I had often wondered what Motty would have looked like if he had survived to maturity, and I mourned the fact that we shall never know. This is of course perfectly true, we can only speculate – but now, I'm delighted to reveal that such speculation has acquired an astonishing and thoroughly fascinating visual form.

Facebook friend and computer art enthusiast Paul Willison shares my interest in what the adult appearance of Motty might have been. Consequently, after reading both of my Motty articles and noting that in overall body form (especially with regard to his long slimmer legs and large triangular, pointed ears) Motty seemed somewhat closer to Loxodonta than Elephas, Paul used his photoshop skills to transform the adult bull African elephant present in each of two public-domain photographs into what may conceivably be accurate images of Motty as a fully-mature elephant. Paul utilised as his morphological guides the photographs of Motty as a calf that appear in my articles, plus my detailed verbal description of him, which was based in turn upon an official account of Motty prepared by Derek G. Lyon, who was Chester Zoo's chief veterinary surgeon at the time of this remarkable little elephant's existence there.

And here they are.

Photoshopped adult bull African elephant #1, now exhibiting the unique complement of morphological characteristics possessed by Motty as a calf (public domain image photo-manipulated by Paul Willison)

And:

Photoshopped adult bull African elephant #2, now exhibiting the unique complement of morphological characteristics possessed by Motty as a calf (public domain image photo-manipulated by Paul Willison)

If these two photographs are directly compared with their respective original, non-photoshopped versions (see below), it can be readily seen how Motty's composite, intergeneric morphology might well have yielded when translated into adult form an elephant that looked dramatically different from any that had ever been seen before, one that was singularly imposing and impressive.

For although he is likely to have retained the overall stature and body proportions of his African elephant father as well as his single large frontal skull dome, Motty would also most probably have retained his paired posterior skull domes inherited from his Asian elephant mother, as well as her species' very distinctive convex back, greater number of toes per foot, and her single trunk-tip digit – features that do not occur in African elephants (the latter possess two trunk-tip digits).

Original, unmodified African elephant photo #1 (above), and the 'Motty-fied' version (below) (public domain; public domain image photo-manipulated by Paul Willison)

And:

Original, unmodified African elephant photo #2 (above), and the 'Motty-fied' version (below) (public domain; public domain image photo-manipulated by Paul Willison)

Nor is this the end of the story. As Paul swiftly recognised and brought to my own attention after completing his photo-manipulations, the resulting images predicting the possible adult appearance of Motty bear more than a passing resemblance (aside from shorter tusks and larger ears) to a certain proboscidean that is spectacularly different from anything alive today – nothing less, in fact, than the gargantuan Columbian mammoth Mammuthus columbi, one of the most awe-inspiring prehistoric mammals of all time.

Native to North America and traditionally believed to have become extinct around 12,500 years ago (but possibly a few millennia later, due to the existence of certain contentious fossil remains that have yielded more recent dates), adult males of this stupendous creature stood 13 ft tall at the shoulder, even overshadowing all but the most exceptional of today's African elephants. It also sported enormous tusks, almost 14 ft long in some instances.

Yet due to this species' very close taxonomic affinity to the woolly mammoth M. primigenius (indeed, DNA evidence suggests that the Jefferson mammoth M. jeffersonii of North America might actually have been a naturally-occurring hybrid of the Columbian mammoth and woolly mammoth), it may well have possessed characteristics recalling Elephas, because the woolly mammoth is certainly more closely related to the modern-day Asian elephant genus than to the African one.

Model of the Columbian mammoth on exhibition last year at the Natural History Museum, London (© Dr Karl Shuker)

Also worthy of note here is that some mammalian hybrids, ligers (lion x tigress hybrids) being a well-known example, actually attain dimensions exceeding those achieved by both of their progenitor species. Is it possible, therefore, that an adult Motty might have surpassed even his African elephant father in stature, thereby providing yet another parallel with the mighty Columbian mammoth?

Of course, all of this is speculation – entertaining, certainly, but completely speculative nonetheless. Even so, perhaps we should not be too surprised after all to discover that Motty, a hybrid deftly combining the African elephant's basic build and proportions with the more specific idiosyncrasies of the Asian elephant, may in adulthood have superficially recalled the Columbian mammoth – a fascinating outcome that, if correct, makes his demise even more tragic than ever, our modern-day world possibly having lost the nearest morphological evocation of the majestic but long-bygone Columbian mammoth that anyone will ever see.

My sincere thanks to Paul Willison for so kindly preparing and making available to me for inclusion here the photo-manipulated images of Motty's possible adult appearace.

Life-sized model of the Columbian mammoth on exhibition last year at the Natural History Museum, London (© Dr Karl Shuker)

CAVEAT LECTOR – LET THE READER BEWARE OF FAKE CRYPTOZOOLOGICAL NEWS STORIES ON SATIRE WEBSITES

A 4.3-metre-long female great white shark caught and photographed in the shark nets off Zinkwazi beach, South Africa, on 31 August 2009 (as reported here), which was subsequently rebranded as a 15-ton giant prehistoric shark caught alive and photographed off Pakistan in 2014 according to a fabricated report recently featured on a satire website (photograph's copyright owner unknown to me)

Even though it commonly occurs, something that is by no means widely realised is the appearance on certain websites of cryptozoological news reports that initially seem to be extremely significant and exciting but which in reality are invariably and completely fictitious.

The 'certain websites' that I am referring to here are so-called satire news sites, of which there are a sizeable number, and which to the casual eye appear to be genuine, factual news websites, but whose entire content, regardless of subject matter, is actually pure fiction (although the images used in them have sometimes originated in earlier, unrelated factual stories on genuine news websites). To be fair, I freely concede that most of these sites do include a small but readily visible disclaimer, usually at the top or bottom of their front page, which when clicked states categorically what they are and what their stories are.

Unfortunately, however, these disclaimers are frequently overlooked by readers, as a result of which many fake stories of a cryptozoological nature that have originated on satire websites subsequently make regular and repeated appearances on bona fide cryptozoological sites and social website pages. Posted there by crypto-enthusiasts unfamiliar with satire sites, they often generate a great deal of conjecture and confusion until their true nature is revealed by more experienced web-surfers.

One satire website that has produced quite a few crypto-themed reports during the course of its existence is World News Daily Report (click here), whose disclaimer reads as follows:

"World News Daily Report is a news and political satire web publication, which may or may not use real names, often in semi-real or mostly fictitious ways. All news articles contained within worldnewsdailyreport.com are fiction, and presumably fake news. Any resemblance to the truth is purely coincidental, except for all references to politicians and/or celebrities, in which case they are based on real people, but still based almost entirely in fiction."

Yet in spite of its disclaimer's presence and unequivocal wording, a number of this satire website's fun stories have nonetheless attracted serious albeit misguided attention in various mainstream sites and social pages devoted to cryptozoology and anomalies or controversies of nature. These stories include the following list (NB - list updated by me on 17 December 2014):

* Mysterious Remains of a Whale Found in a Field in Utah.
Click here
5 December 2014.

* Smithsonian Admits to Destruction of Thousands of Giant Human Skeletons in Early 1900's.
Click here
3 December 2014.

Mexican Drug Smugglers Eaten Alive by Giant Squids After Boat Sinks Near Coast of California.
Click here
26 November 2014.

* Ireland: Archaeologists Discover Remains of New Humanoid Species.
Click here
18 November 2014.

Jurassic Plant Brought Back to Life After 200 Million Years.
Click here
12 November 2014.

Pterodactyl Sighting in New Guinea Terrorizes Villagers, Alarms Authorities
Click here
27 October 2014.

Archeologists Unearth Giant Human Remains Near Stonehenge.

Click here

1 October 2014

* 15-Ton Prehistoric Shark Captured Off Coast Of Pakistan.

Click here

23 September 2014.

Scotland: Nessie Sighting Brings Surge Of Enthusiasm In Favor Of Scottish Independence.

Click here

15 September 2014

Indonesia: Ape Man Creature Shot Down In Borneo Jungle.

Click here

14 September 2014

Giant Man-Eating Catfish Finally Caught In Mekong River.

Click here

28 August 2014

New York: 600-Pound Alligator Shot Down in Central Park.

Click here

5 August 2014.

Russia: Mammoth Embryo Brought Back to Life.

Click here

13 July 2014.

Nepal: Frozen Caveman Discovered in Himalaya.
Click here
12 June 2014.

Pet Jerboa Crosses Europe to Reunite With Family.
Click here
9 April 2014.

M’Bokolokolo Creature Sighted in Nigeria.

Click here

26 March 2014.

* 200 Million Years Old Dinosaur Egg Hatches in Berlin Museum.

Click here

20 February 2014.

Indonesia: Tiger Rhinos Almost Extinct, According to Experts.
Click here
13 January 2014.

* Thailand: Snakegirl Attracts Crowds of Pilgrims and Tourists.

Click here

6 January 2014.

Giant Lobster Invades Beach House in Canada.
Click here
21 December 2013.

Malawi: Rare Specimen of Duckhorse Sighted During Safari.
Click here
11 December 2013.

New Specie [sic] of Centipedes Discovered Near Fukushima [radiation-mutated circular centipede with no head or posterior end!].
Click here
2 December 2013.

China: Tiger Squirrel Wreaks Havoc in Small Village.

Click here

1 December 2013.

Chinese Scientists Clone Pig with Wings.

Click here

29 November 2013.

3-Meter Tall Squirrel Killed by Army After Bloody Rampage.

Click here

26 November 2013.

Climbers Encounter Sasquatch in Colorado.

Click here

18 November 2013.

So if you've previously read any of these reports and presumed that they described major breakthroughs in cryptozoological or mainstream zoological discovery – think again!

Finally: for a useful annotated listing of notable satire websites and other prominent online sources of faux journalism, click here.


UPDATE: 12 August 2017

Today, I rechecked all of the above articles, and discovered that only six of them are still online, so I have now identified them with a red asterisk (*) at the beginning of their titles. However, I did also note that there are plenty of newer ones on that site... 

Contrary to satire news reporting, Nessie did not make any appearance at the time of the recent vote for Scottish independence – judging from this delightful illustration, her attention was clearly elsewhere! (© Jane Cooper)

NANDI BEARS AND TERROR BIRDS – FIRST SNEAK PREVIEW OF 'THE MENAGERIE OF MARVELS'

Front cover section of the complete wraparound cover artwork for my forthcoming book The Menagerie of Marvels (© Anthony Wallis)

It was way back in 1991 when my second book, Extraordinary Animals Worldwide, was published, by Robert Hale Limited of London. Containing accounts of lesser-known cryptozoological beasts and scarcely-known mainstream creatures, and plentifully supplied with exquisite antiquarian chromolithographs, engravings, and other vintage illustrations wherever possible, it purposefully recalled a bygone generation of natural history books, dating predominantly from the 19^th and early 20^th Centuries, whose subject matter, generally a deft, eclectic interweaving of speculative zoology, the history of animal discovery, and wildlife mythology of the ancients, was popularly referred to by its authors and readers alike as romantic zoology.

Such was the enduring appeal of my book's modern-day contribution to this now all-but-lost subject – indeed, eventually gaining a cult status among cryptozoological aficionados in particular – that I was encouraged to prepare a much-expanded, updated edition, entitled Extraordinary Animals Revisited, which was published in 2007, this time by CFZ Press. Updating some of the most popular chapters from the original book and also adding many new ones, it went on to attract an even greater following than its predecessor, and remains in print today.

With Extraordinary Animals Revisited at its official launch in August 2007 at the CFZ's Weird Weekend (© Mark North)

By 'mixing and matching' cryptozoology with mainstream zoology, these two books have each enabled me to include within a single volume a much greater diversity of creatures than in other works of mine, and in turn have indulged me in my desire to investigate and write about certain truly obscure animals that have long fascinated me. Consequently, it was only a matter of time before I would give in to temptation and compile a third compendium of extraordinary animals - and now I have done so, via my forthcoming 21^st book.

Entitled The Menagerie of Marvels (and employing the aforementioned phrase A Third Compendium of Extraordinary Animals as its subtitle in order to confirm its inclusion within the Extraordinary Animals canon of works), it is due to be published in good time for Christmas, and once again by CFZ Press. So here, to tease and tantalise, is a first sneak-preview, consisting of the truly spectacular artwork that longstanding friend and superb artist Anthony Wallis has kindly prepared for its wraparound cover – thanks Ant!

The complete wraparound cover artwork for The Menagerie of Marvels (© Anthony Wallis)

Demonstrating the diversity of this book's plentiful contents (running to over 20 chapters and more than 260 pages), it features a woolly mammoth, a Nandi bear in giant baboon mode, and, taking centre-stage in all their rapacious glory, a very formidable pair of terror birds or phorusrhacids.

Further details concerning the numerous subjects appearing within The Menagerie of Marvels will be released in future ShukerNature sneak previews between now and its publication – so watch this space!

The first two volumes in my series of Extraordinary Animals compendia (© Dr Karl Shuker)

WHEN THE MAMMOTHS CAME TO TOWN

A mammoth discovery in Shropshire! (Dr Karl Shuker)

[I wrote the original version of this article - one of my earliest publications - in March 1987, and it appeared later that year in a now long-defunct British monthly magazine called The Unknown. In order to maintain its then-current, now-historical flavour, I am republishing it here in largely unchanged form (except where newer information and discoveries have required some minor updating of material). I wish to thank the Shropshire Star newspaper most sincerely for very kindly supplying me with a photograph of some of the mammoths’ remains for inclusion in this article.]


When (if?) the good weather returns, I plan to visit the Shropshire Hills Discovery Centre at Craven Arms, near Ludlow, ensconced in some of England’s most beautiful countryside, in order to see the life-sized replica of a certain, very special Ice Age mammal – and, in so doing, revisit an extraordinary discovery that I first documented way back in 1987. Allow me to explain.

One of the most remarkable yet unexpected palaeontological finds of modern times in England took place in the county of Shropshire, and involved a discovery of truly mammoth proportions.

The Shropshire saga began inauspiciously at the end of September 1986 during a session of excavations by contractors working in an ARC Western-owned sand and gravel quarry at Condover, a small village just north of Shrewsbury. Quarryman Maurice Baddeley was using a dragline to scoop up clay and peat sediment from the quarry’s upper surface in order to reach the gravel underneath, piling the removed sediment into a towering pinnacle for subsequent levelling. During this activity, his dragline’s bucket drew up from a muddy pond a long, stiff object that Mr Baddeley initially dismissed as a metal or wooden post, probably a telegraph pole, and tipped onto the sediment pile. Upon later, closer observation, however, just prior to the pile being demolished, he realised that this ‘pole’ was actually a gigantic bone – measuring 4-5 ft long!

At this same time, Eve and Glyn Roberts of nearby Bayston Hill were walking their dogs here and saw the bone. Realising that it might be something important, Eve lost no time in telephoning the Shropshire Museums Service, and relayed what they had seen to the County Museums Officer, Geoff McCabe, who promptly sent out a team to investigate. To their great surprise and delight, the team discovered that the intriguing object was nothing less than a limb bone from a woolly mammoth Mammuthus primigenius – that hairy elephantine epitome of the Ice Ages.

Naturally the scientists immediately combined forces with the contractors to monitor future digging in the hope of disinterring further remains - with deserved success. For during the next week, 18 more specimens were obtained, including various vertebrae and a jawbone bearing two enormous teeth.

Fossil remains, even when as massive as those of mammoths, are unexpectedly fragile when unearthed. Hence to ensure their continued survival, the precious Shropshire specimens were swiftly transferred to nearby Ludlow Museum, where they could not only be more precisely identified and age-determined but also be carefully cleaned of debris, shielded from harmful sunlight, and allowed to dry very slowly to prevent distortion.

Meanwhile, the regular media reports concerning the mammoth's discovery, as featured in the Shropshire Star in particular, had incited very considerable public interest - resulting in the brief unveiling of these remains for a press conference and photo-session held at the local Acton Scott Farm Museum on 7 October.


FORMAL SCIENTIFIC EXCAVATION
 Among the scientific representatives present at the conference was Dr Russell Coope - Reader in Palaeontological Sciences at the University of Birmingham. On the morning of 9 October (and subsequently working in conjunction with mammoth expert Dr Adrian Lister of the University of Cambridge), Dr Coope led the first formal scientific excavation at the quarry seeking more mammoth remains. Moreover, news of this most significant search had already travelled beyond Shropshire, because the BBC’s long-running children's television show ‘Blue Peter’ was represented on site by presenter Mark Curry and an attendant film crew, recording the excavation for inclusion within a future episode (which was screened on 30 October).

The four-day dig (financed by ARC and the Shropshire County Council) brought together a team of scientists from the University of Birmingham and the Shropshire Museums Service plus numerous enthusiastic local volunteers. Their principal focus of attention was the 20-ft-high sediment pile already hewn out of the quarry by the draglines, because it was this sediment that had originally contained the mammoth's skeleton - and from which, therefore, the team hoped to disinter and disentangle it, piece by piece.


AN OVERWHELMING SUCCESS
By the end of Day 1, even the most optimistic expectations had been exceeded, because a tally of more than 50 specimens - ranging from tiny wafers of tusk fragments to entire limb bones - had been unearthed! These were lightened by removing loose debris, and each specimen was then delicately packed separately within an opaque, fully-labelled bag for direct transportation to Ludlow Museum for identification and preservation. Deer and insect remains, as well as pollen samples, were also collected.

Remains from the Shropshire mammoths (courtesy of the Shropshire Star)

The search ended on 13 October, and proved to have been an overwhelming success, because with more than 200 separate bags of fossilised remains, it seemed certain that almost the entire mammoth skeleton had been obtained. Pride of place within the collection, however, was surely the pelvic girdle, because part of it was obtained intact as a single, massive, and substantially heavy portion bearing one complete acetabulum (the socket for femur articulation) and obturator foramen (a large gap between the pubis and ischium bones on each side of the pelvic girdle in mammals). Nevertheless, there was even more exciting news to be disclosed.


NOT ONE, BUT FIVE!
Put quite simply, scientific examination of the collection obtained at that point (as well as during three subsequent excavations, the last one spanning 15 June to 3 July 1987) ultimately revealed the presence of not one but five mammoths! One was an adult (originally thought to be a female, but confirmed by Russian scientist Vac Garutt at the Leningrad Museum of Science in 1988 to be a male), believed to have been 30-32 years old when it died. The other four were juveniles. Three were each represented by a largely complete lower jaw and various other remains. Two of these latter three juveniles were 3-4 years old, and appeared to be of opposite sexes. The third was larger, and was aged 5-6 years old. One of the 3-4-year-olds was found during the first dig, as was the 5-6-year-old, whereas the other 3-4-year-old came to light during the summer 1987 dig, as did the fourth juvenile, thought to be 4-5 years old and represented by a single rib.

Prior to continued scrutiny, however, it was imperative that their fossilised remains be cleaned thoroughly to remove as much tenacious debris as possible. So to ensure effective washing, an outdooor area normally reserved for the cleaning of public transport vehicles was utilised! Not surprisingly, on 1 November this singular event attracted a large crowd of spectators.

The scientific team estimated that approximately 80 per cent of the total skeletal content of the mammoths had been obtained during the recent excavation. Nevertheless, one major item was stil1 missing - the adult mammoth's skull. Undaunted, the team decided to instigate a second search, and once again, following a public appeal for local volunteers, a sizeable party was assembled, wielding a formidable armoury of shovels and spades. Yet sadly, despite a most valiant and determined effort sustained throughout the weekend of 15-16 November, the skull was not located, although several additional minor bones were unearthed. A third excavation took place not long afterwards, with a fourth, final dig taking place the following summer, but the skull was never found. As suggested by Geoffrey McCabe, it may have been removed soon after the adult’s death by human contemporaries.


FUTURE DESTINATION
Even without the skull, however, the Shropshire specimens still constituted one of the most comprehensive collections of mammoth skeletons ever discovered. Indeed, the County Museums Service hoped to retain them to form the centre-piece of an extensive educational exhibition, depicting the appearance of Shropshire during the Ice Ages when inhabited by mammoths. In turn, this would also greatly benefit local tourism. Conversely, in view of their national scientific significance, it was equally possible that they may be taken for permanent display in London. Thus in December 1986, a local conference was held to discuss the mammoths' future destination, attended by Shropshire Council members, ARC representatives, and Drs Coope and Lister.

To the Shropshire community’s delight, it was decided that the collection should be retained locally, for the planned Ice Age exhibition. Furthermore, ARC gave permission for future digging in 1987 in pursuit of any further remains (including the adult mammoth’s elusive skull), and pledged financial participation in subsequent scientific studies upon the bones already obtained. Moreover, in March 1987 the entire collection was transported to the University of Birmingham for research purposes.




The Shropshire mammoths' scientific debut - via a formal paper written by Coope and Lister and published in the scientific journal Nature on 3 December 1987 - was certainly one of the most thrilling episodes in British palaeontology for very many years, supplemented by continuing detailed studies. Even so, although certainly not the types of fossil to be found every day of the week, mammoth remains have been uncovered in the UK before - so why were the Shropshire mammoths of especial importance? This can be readily answered as follows.


PHENOMENAL COLLECTION
 British remains of mammoths and other fossil elephants almost invariably consist of a few bones, teeth, or fragments. Furthermore, a large proportion of these originate from the London region, although a notable find took place in Nottinghamshire during summer 1986, when two huge proboscidean (probably mammoth) limb bones were hauled up by an excavator during the construction of a car-park at Worksop's Bassetlaw Hospital. Consequently, the discovery together of a largely complete adult mammoth skeleton and no less than four partially complete juveniles is truly phenomenal.

Indeed, possibly the only British find in any way comparable to this within modern times was the unearthing in the early 1960s during excavations at an Aveley quarry in Essex of a virtually entire mammoth skeleton. Beneath this was a similarly near-complete skeleton of a straight-tusked elephant Palaeoloxodon antiquus, which by sheer coincidence had died on the very same spot (but undoubtedly several millennia before the mammoth - for the two species were not contemporaries). Needless to say, this unexpected but very remarkable find quickly brought a team from the British Museum (Natural History) to the site to remove the collection for preservation and study.


YOUNGEST BRITISH MAMMOTHS
During the last Ice Age (Weichsel/Würm glaciation), spanning the period 80,000-10,000 years BP (Before Present Day) when M. primigenius still roamed Britain, Shropshire was a birch-dominated tundra interspersed with sparse vegetation and clay-walled marsh-like pools created by melting subterranean ice left stranded by retreating glaciers. Dr Coope opined that the Shropshire mammoths may have wandered into one such pool while seeking vegetation. Although all elephants can swim, they cannot climb steep inclines such as the pool's walls. Consequently, the mammoths would have perished - a tragic end for such majestic creatures.

Coope explained that their remains were discovered between an upper layer of peat (shown to have been deposited 10,000 years ago) and a lower layer of glacial gravel (deposited 18,000 years ago) - another clue to the Shropshire mammoths' especial importance. More precise analysis of the bones themselves, via carbon-dating techniques, yielded an age of approximately 12,800 years BP. Hence, as Coope announced to the media, the Shropshire mammoths were not only the most complete but also, by around 5000 years, the youngest mammoths so far discovered in Britain and had survived beyond the coldest stage of the last Ice Age. In June 2009, Lister revealed that a new, even more accurate method of radiocarbon dating applied to the remains by researchers from the British Museum (Natural History) had yielded a date of 14,000 BP, but this still meant that they were Britain’s youngest mammoths.

In addition, it was suggested that they might even participate at some future stage in one of the most remarkable fields of mammoth-related zoological research currently in progress - the cloning of mammoth DNA. The raw materials (muscles, soft tissues) for this revolutionary work are normally obtained from ice-entombed specimens obtained in Siberia. However, Prof. Alan Wilson of the University of California suggested that the Shropshire specimens may be sufficiently well-preserved to possess samples of soft tissue capable of being used for DNA cloning purposes, and he duly made contact with the Shropshire team to discover more concerning this exciting possibility. In short, the mammoths of Shrewsbury certainly appear set to occupy a prominent position within future scientific research for some considerable time to come.

During 1988, I visited the temporary but exciting exhibition of the Shropshire mammoth remains (which also included an excellent full-sized replica of a woolly mammoth, created by Roby Braun) that was held at Cosford Aerospace Museum, just outside Wolverhampton, from 1 April to 30 October of that year. The exhibition was subsequently staged in Derbyshire, Lancashire, and Newcastle upon Tyne, before closing in August 1991. The replica mammoth now resides within the Secret Hills exhibition at the Shropshire Hills Discovery Centre in Craven Arms, whereas the Shropshire mammoth bones are ensconced in Ludlow Museum and Resource Centre, and are recognised to be the third most complete remains of woolly mammoths to have been discovered anywhere in Europe. Not a bad outcome for a ‘telegraph pole’ that had been dug up by chance and then tipped unceremoniously onto a pile of sediment.

Life-sized reconstruction of a woolly mammoth (Dr Karl Shuker)

UPDATE - 21 February 2014

Life-sized replica skeleton of the adult Shropshire woolly mammoth, exhibited at the Shropshire Hills Discovery Centre in Craven Arms, near Ludlow, Shropshire (Dr Karl Shuker)

Yes indeed - today I visited the Shropshire Hills Discovery Centre and saw for myself at last the splendid life-sized replica skeleton of the adult Shropshire woolly mammoth. Well worth the wait, as you can see:

Meeting the mammoth (Dr Karl Shuker)