Woolly rhino find astounds scientists

SCIENTISTS are describing the remains of a woolly rhinoceros found at Lafarge Aggregates’ sand and gravel quarry at Whitemoor Haye, near Alrewas, Staffordshire, as a major archaeological discovery. The chance find was made by quarry worker Ray Davies, who pulled up the skull of the animal in his excavator bucket. Archaeologists from the University of Birmingham were called in immediately to supervise the recovery of the of the skeleton, which dates back to the last Ice Age.

Archaeologist Gary Coates said: ‘I’ve been working at Whitemoor Haye for five years and have excavated everything from prehistoric burial mounds to Roman farmsteads, but this find was totally unexpected. It’s the biggest find, in all senses of the word, that I’ve ever been involved with.’

Initially the remains were taken to the University’s archaeological unit for cleaning and identification, but the rhino –– believed to have died some 30–40 thousand years ago and to have weighed approximately 1.5 tonnes –– has now been donated to the Natural History Museum in London to be conserved and displayed. Andy Currant, a palaeontologist at the museum, described the remains as the best example of a woolly rhino he had ever seen.

The dig at Whitemoor Haye has also uncovered the remains of mammoth, reindeer, wild horse and a wolf, as well as plants and beetles which provide a detailed picture of the freezing environment in which the rhino lived and died.

Further excavation at the site is being funded by English Nature through its Aggregates Levy Sustainability Fund Grants Scheme. Describing finds of this calibre as unusual, Natalie Bennett from English Nature said: ‘The Fund provides us with the opportunity to work with Lafarge Aggregates to ensure specialists are able to study the woolly rhino and the surrounding sediments before the company resumes sand and gravel extraction.’