A MID-DEVENSIAN WOOLLY RHINOCEROS SKELETON FROM TERRACE GRAVELS AT THE TRENT-TAME CONFLUENCE, WHITEMOOR HAYE, STAFFORDSHIRE, UK

Late Pleistocene fluviatile sands and gravels laid down by the River Tame at Whitemoor Haye in south Staffordshire, close to the Trent confluence, have yielded the remains of fossil mammals attributable to the Middle Devensian (marine oxygen isotope stage [MIS] 3, c. 60-25 ka B.P.). The most significant find, the well-preserved anterior part of an articulated skeleton of a woolly rhinoceros, Coelodonta antiquitatis (Blumenbach, 1807) was discovered in September 2002, together with other vertebrate fossils, plant macrofossils, pollen and insect remains. The remarkably good condition and completeness of the material suggested that the rhinoceros had initially been buried as a frozen carcass, although the posterior part of the body appears to have been removed at a later date. The discovery of an articulated skeleton represents a particularly significant find for the English West Midlands, where vertebrate remains have been only rarely encountered to date, and provides an important marker in the dating of this part of the Trent-Tame terrace sequence.