Late‐glacial mammoth skeletons (Mammuthusprimigenius) from Condover (Shropshire, UK): anatomy, pathology, taphonomy and chronological significance

Abstract

The Condover mammoths, discovered by chance in 1986, are a remarkably well-preserved assemblage of partial skeletons unique in western and central Europe. The skeletons were preserved in a kettle-hole infill and recovered ex situ, requiring careful anatomical reconstruction. This revealed the skeleton of a 28-year-old adult male woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius), largely complete except for the cranium, the partial skeletons of four or five juveniles in the age range 3-6 years, plus sparse remains of a subadult individual. The adult skeleton bears several traces of pathology, particularly a badly fractured but re-healed scapula. The presence of blowfly puparia within bone cavities, together with other environmental data and a consideration of mammoth biology, allow a detailed reconstruction of the taphonomy of the skeletons, which appear to have become mired within the kettle-hole. The discovery of complete skeletons from a stratified, dated context contributes strong evidence for the survival of mammoths in Britain and western Europe into the Devensian Late-glacial ca. 14.5-14.0 ka cal BP, within Greenland The Condover mammoths were discovered on 27 September 1986, when Mrs Eve Roberts, a local resident, noticed large bones protruding from a pile of sediment at the ARC (Western) gravel pit at Norton Farm, Condover (5 km south of Shrewsbury, map ref. SJ498075). The bones had been uncovered by a large mechanical digger standing on a field at the edge of the pit and throwing clay and peat deposits onto a spoil heap on the field. Scientific work at the site comprised two linked investigations: (1) a stratigraphic and palaeoenvironmental study based on sections and boreholes in the basin itself Scourse et al. 2009), and (2) recovery of the ex-situ mammoth bones from the spoil heap. The latter was undertaken in October-November 1986 and June-July 1987, by AML and G R Coope with the assistance of teams of volunteers recruited locally. The spoil heap was carefully spread over the field using a back-hoe; team members then systematically scanned the muddy deposits for bones. This process was repeated three times until all visible bones had been recovered. In addition, at the end of the excavation (which was time-limited because of ARC's wish to resume gravel extraction), a digger was used to excavate further areas of clay from inside the pit; this resulted in the recovery of further remains including, importantly, two juvenile mammoth mandibles. GEOLOGICAL JOURNAL Geol. J. 44: 447-479 (2009 The Condover site is a kettle-hole infill whose stratigraphy and sedimentology are described by Scourse et al. (2009). Sediment attaching to mammoth bones strongly suggests that they had originated from Unit C1, a dark grey clayey sandy silt. Radiocarbon dates indicate that this sequence accumulated during the earlier part of Greenland Interstadial 1, between 14 and 14.5 ka cal BP ). The rarity of dung beetles in Unit C1, however, compared to their abundance in sediment from within mammoth skull and jaw bones, suggests that the...

Impact of climate and humans on the range dynamics of the woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) in Europe during MIS 2

“…8). The first group of dates is concentrated in the northwestern part of the continent in England and northern France (Hedges et al, 1989; Stuart et al, 2002; Lister, 2009), and the second group is in the central part of the East European Plain, Russia (Sinitsyn et al, 1997; Khlopachev, 2015). Mammoths were probably still present farther northeast, as documented by a single date from Mamontovaya Kurya (Svendsen and Pavlov, 2003).…”

Holarctic genetic structure and range dynamics in the woolly mammoth

“…There is size variation among mammoths in the last glaciation of Europe, but it does not map clearly to clade membership and may be owing to environmental effects, for example, vegetational productivity [53 -55]. In Western Europe, large body size was maintained up to the last populations in the late-glacial [56].…”

Mammoth and musk ox ESR‐dated to the Early Midlandian at Aghnadarragh, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, and the age of the Fermanagh Stadial

“…However, the latest mammoths in Europe ( ca . 15–13 ka) are not particularly small (Lister, ). Conversely, populations of small body size have been found in deposits of various ages and locations, examples including Ilford, Essex (MIS 7, ca .…”