A middle Pleistocene herpetofauna from Cudmore Grove, Essex, England, and its paleogeographic and paleoclimatic implications

Abstract

Freshwater/estuarine organic deposits at Cudmore Grove, Mersea Island, Essex, England, palynologically dated to the Hoxnian Interglacial Substage Ho IIIb, have yielded by far the richest fossil herpetofauna known from the British Pleistocene. Caudates are represented by Triturus cristatus and T. vulgaris; anurans by Hyla sp., Bufo bufo, Rana arvalis, R . "esculenta" or R. ridibunda, and R . lessonae ; testudines by Emys orbicularis; saurians by Anguis fragili s and Lacerta sp .; and snakes by Elaphe longissima, Natrix maura or N. tessel/ata , N. natrix, and Vipera berus. Of these 14 taxa , seven do not occur in Britain today, but are found in continental Europe. The fossil assemblage reflects the former connection of Britain to continental Europe and is consistent with a climate of milder winters and warmer summers than today during the later part of the Hoxnian Interglacial (Substage Ho IIIb).

Differentiation of MIS 9 and MIS 11 in the continental record: vegetational, faunal, aminostratigraphic and sea-level evidence from coastal sites in Essex, UK

“…The silty clays are truncated at the southwestern part of the site by a thin bed of shelly detritus muds, composed of abundant shell debris in a matrix of dark brown (7.5YR 2/0) silty clay. This deposit, which when sampled in the early 1990s was only a few centimetres thick, is richly fossiliferous and has yielded a wealth of faunal remains ( Holman et al., 1990 ; see below). The detritus muds were formerly more extensive and up to 30 cm thick ( Bridgland et al., 1988 ) but have been eroded significantly by ongoing cliff retreat.…”

“…The detritus muds (Unit 3) were easily the most shelly horizon. Consequently, the residues of large bulk samples from Unit 3 previously analysed for vertebrate remains by John Clayden (see Holman et al., 1990 ), were sorted and the frequencies of molluscan taxa estimated ( Table 3 ).…”

“…1 ). The detritus muds (Unit 3) at Cudmore Grove have yielded an extensive vertebrate assemblage including mammals, birds and herpetiles ( Bridgland et al., 1988; Holman et al., 1990 ) and fish. Unit 1 has yielded a fragmentary molar of an indeterminate elephant (G.R.…”

“…The herpetofaunal assemblage, one of the richest reported from Britain ( Holman et al., 1990 ), provides valuable palaeoclimatic information, since the geographical distributions of these animals are closely linked to temperature. All herpetiles are directly reliant upon external heat for their survival, and in the case of oviparous reptiles, require certain minimum temperatures for the hatching of their eggs.…”

Collagen fingerprinting for the species identification of archaeological amphibian remains

“…Although no longer present in the UK, remains of R. arvalis have been reported from interglacial sites in southeast England (Holman 1987; Holman & Clayden 1988; Holman et al . 1988, 1990; Ashton et al . 1994) as well as the ambiguous specimens from the later Holocene mentioned above.…”