If I asked you to name some important places in the history of science, what would you say? Universities, observatories, and museums, of course, but what about outdoor spaces or fossil sites? You might mention the importance of the Galapagos islands to Charles Darwin, and Lyme Regis to Mary Anning… but did you know that one of the most significant sites to early evolutionary and palaeontological thinking is a small, unassuming rock face in the Vale of Pickering? In the summer of 1821, quarrymen extracting limestone near Kirkbymoorside struck upon a cave containing large quantities of animal bones. Little did they know at the time that they had just unearthed a true treasure trove of fossils and opened a window onto a lost age of Yorkshire’s history. Initially, the bones were little regarded, it was less about opening windows into the past and more about filling holes… by which we mean potholes in the local roads, which were filled using the fossil bones.
Enter Reverend William Buckland, Professor of Geology at the University of Oxford, a remarkable and eccentric scientist and clergyman. His scientific discoveries were many, underpinning much of our modern understanding of topics such as fossil ecosystems and glaciation. He was also the describer of the first English dinosaur fossil (although it wasn’t called that at the time). In all these discoveries he was ably assisted by his wife Mary who edited and illustrated many of his manuscripts.
For the Reverend Professor, there was something strange about the bones from Kirkdale Cave. He noted that hyena bones were abnormally common, including bones of both young and old individuals. The other bones in the cave could be considered as large prey animals. The thoughts that this cave was home to a pack of hungry hyenas was beginning to formulate in Buckland’s mind. To test his theory Buckland required an assistant: Billy. Billy was a hyena. Yes, Buckland acquired a live hyena to see what chewed bones looked like to compare to those found in the cave. The remains of Billy’s luncheon looked like the remains in the cave and his poo contained tiny pieces of broken bone - just like the coprolites which had been found! Buckland was convinced that the bones had entered the cave NOT by being washed thousands of miles in a flood but by being dragged into the cave by living hyenas and therein consumed. Cue profound revelations! The cave was actually lived in by hyenas – this not only meant there were hyenas roaming Yorkshire, it also meant that prey animals such as elephants and hippos were there too! As we know from the modern that Yorkshire is too cold for these creatures, so we must deduce that either these animals lived in different climates than they do in the modern or that the climate has changed over time. Buckland’s studies on Kirkdale Cave were of great significance to early palaeontological science! They showed crucial evidence for changes in animal faunas and climate over time, as well as demonstrating that past environments could be reconstructed by careful analysis and experimentation. Fossil mammals from Kirkdale Cave are in collections all over the world (including some at the Te Papa museum in Wellington, New Zealand!) although the nearest place to Kirkdale itself to see them is the display at Whitby Museum. After seeing the fossil bones at local museums, why not visit the cave itself? The abandoned quarry is located in a beautiful valley near the historic church of St Gregory’s Minster near Kirkbymoorside. The hyena bones are now long gone and the only fossils to be found at the site are those in the underlying Jurassic bedrock. If you visit, look out for polished surfaces with gastropods at the base of the cliff, and sea urchin spines further up near the cave. It is an SSSI (site of special scientific interest) so no hammering is allowed, but there are plenty of loose stones in the quarry and the nearby stream. The sea urchin spines are iconic of a certain rock layer called the ‘Coral Rag’. Kirkdale Cave and other cave systems in the Vale of Pickering form near the junction between the rubbly-looking Coral Rag and the layer underneath. These Jurassic coral reef fossils do not get much attention in modern retellings of the story of Kirkdale Cave, which we think is a shame as they are the only things still visible at the site! Please tag us in anything you find - we'd love to see them! Author: Rebecca Bennion References:
Boylan, P. (2022). "200th Anniversary of the discovery and first publication of the Kirkdale Cave fossil hyaena den, near Kirby Moorside, North Yorkshire". Circular of the Yorkshire Geological Society. 636: 19-26 Buckland, W. (1822). "Account of an assemblage of fossil teeth and bones of elephants, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, bear, tiger, and hyaena, and sixteen other animals, discovered in a cave at Kirkdale, Yorkshire, in the year 1821: with a comparative view of five similar caverns in various parts of England, and others on the Continent". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. 112: 171–236. Wright, J. K. (1972). The stratigraphy of the Yorkshire Corallian. Proceedings of the Yorkshire Geological Society. 39(2): 225-266.
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