Starts 19:30
On: 11th October
At: Friends Meeting House, Elliot Park, Keswick CA12 5NZ
Angela Bentley, Aquinus Sixth Form College, Stockport
Research with Durham University on sea floor spreading on the RRS James Cook in 2016
Event Report: Wolves and wildcats: mammalian response abrupt climate change at the end of the last Ice Age
“Wolves and wildcats: mammalian response abrupt climate change at the end of the last Ice Age”.
Prof Danielle Schreve spoke to a packed room about her research at Gully Cave in Ebbor Gorge, a NNR in Somerset. This previously unexcavated cave is formed in Carboniferous limestone, on a SW facing slope of the Mendips in a steep sided ravine, and was almost completely filled with sediment and overgrown.
To date, over 120 tons of sediment have been carefully excavated and passed through a half-millimetre sieve to extract all bone fragments. Large mammal finds and artefacts are surveyed in 3D and the cave has been laser-scanned so that a virtual reconstruction is possible.
Thousands of teeth and bones of small mammals have been identified, some of which are extant today but not currently found in Somerset e.g. mountain hare and common vole. Some were of cold climate tundra taxa including the narrow skulled vole, northern vole and various lemmings. The bones of larger mammals, including a complete articulated hind limb of aurochs, were also identified as well as bones of red deer and reindeer, including many broken leg bones with green bone and impact fractures. Does this indicate early humans were after the bone marrow? Some bones are brown which may be due to proximity to fire. Charcoal has been recovered in the cave but as yet no sign of a hearth.
Deeper down, the sediments are sterile and coarser with chunks of broken flowstone. These represent the Dimlington Stadial 26,000 to 13,000 years BP, the last ice advance of the Pleistocene. At 25,000BP, the cave was occupied by brown bears, including a very old individual, sub-adults and several cubs. The bones show signs of being gnawed by a spotted hyaena. Below were discovered numerous remains of reindeer, bison, horse and huge red deer, dating to the middle part of the last glaciation (40-50,000 years BP), as well as a struck flint flake, evidence of the presence of Neanderthals or Homo sapiens.
Prof. Schreve highlighted the importance of the cave for understanding how mammals responded to very abrupt climate change at the end of the last Ice Age and the position of the gorge as a potential, sheltered refugialarea for warm-adapted species during times of climatic deterioration.
Event Reminder: Wolves and wildcats: mammalian esponse to abrupt climate change at the end of the last Ice Age
Starting 19:30
On: 13th September
At: Sandgate Room, Penrith Methodist Church, Wordsworth Street, Penrith. CA11 7QY
Prof. Danielle Schreve. “Wolves and wildcats: mammalian response to abrupt climate change at the end of the last Ice Age”
The rapid climatic fluctuations of the Last Glacial-Interglacial transition produced a major re-ordering of the mammalian faunas of northwestern Europe, resulting in groupings of animals that are frequently referred to as ‘disharmonious’, by comparison to their present day ranges. Using new evidence from British cave sequences, the presentation will examine the capacity of mammalian taxa to withstand abrupt climate change at the end of the last Ice Age and will discuss the implications for refugial areas, extinctions and early human occupation.
Professor Schreve’s biographical information
Professor Danielle Schreve (Director of the Centre for Quaternary Research at Royal Holloway University of London) is a vertebrate palaeontologist and specialist in Quaternary mammals. Her research (see http://bit.ly/2kzpHZO) combines biostratigraphy, evolutionary trends, palaeoecology, taphonomy and the interaction of past mammalian communities with early humans. As a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, former President of the Geologists’ Association and recent Vice-President of the Quaternary Research Association, she is a keen science communicator as well as an active fieldworker, currently leading investigations into a number of important new palaeontological sites in Britain.
Event Reminder: Seathwaite Fell Formation on Seathwaite Fell
Starting at the slightly earlier time of 10:00
3rd September
Not October as in the previous reminder
This arduous excursion will cover a complete section through the sedimentary fill of the Scafell caldera in the type area specifically considering the range of rock types, depositional environments, and the abundant examples of soft-sedimentary deformation. The party will take the Styhead Tarn path and where this levels out after Taylorgill Force we will climb over rough fellside to Aaron Crags and then mainly traverse along the crest of Seathwaite Fell to Sprinkling Tarn. The return will be via Styhead Tarn along paths giving a total distance of six kilometres with a height gain of 500 metres. Information about a poor weather alternative will be posted on the website in due course.
Event Reminder: Railway Footpaths and Old Mining Areas in West Cumbria
Sunday 13th August
Starts: 10:30
Location: A5086 road at Parkside
Description:
Leaders David Powell and Mervyn Dodd. Meet at NY 034154 on A5086 at Parkside at 10.30. Up to c.8 km walking on old railway line paths.
Event Report: An Examination of the Ravenstonedale Group
An Examination of the Ravenstonedale Group.
16 members assembled at Wath on A685 for a briefing by leader Noel Pearson who has done considerable research into the Lower Carboniferous of this area. Three separate localities had been identified to represent the stratigraphy, involving various levels of difficulty, but thankfully in dry and bright weather conditions.
1 A short visit to an exposure of bedrock in the track just above Flakebridge Farm allowed examination of an unconformity between steeply dipping Silurian mudstones and overlying low-angle Carboniferous sediments. This is a rare example of being able to stand with the gap between your feet representing a time gap of at least 50 million years.
2 A transfer by car took us to Pinksey Gill. After a brief explanation of the surrounding landscape from an elevated viewpoint, the group followed the stream bed upwards through the shallow water marine beds of the Pinksey Gill Formation and into the Marsett Formation. A change from the varied clastic and carbonate beds was noted with the outcrop of a conglomerate band which has been equated with that of the well-known Shap Wells unconformity, and marking a temporary regression.
3 After a stream-side lunch stop the party moved on to Ravenstonedale village and embarked on a section of the youngest sub-division of the Ravenstonedale Group, the Stone Gill Formation. This involved following the bedrock downstream, eventually into Stone Gill itself, and searching on the way for a variety of fossils, including bands of algal limestone, brachiopods, corals, gastropods and traces of burrows. The disappearance of the stream into underground drainage channels, extensive sections of dry stream bed and the reappearance of flowing water further down the gill was noted, and Noel outlined attempts to trace the sub-surface drainage using introduction of dyes (which were not then recorded at the expected point, clearly indicating a complex system below).
After a team effort negotiating stream crossings and the challenge of a watergate, Noel was thanked for the considerable preparation he had taken and the detailed explanation of the earliest Carboniferous beds in this part of Cumbria.
JR