An Early Pleistocene hippopotamus from Westbury Cave, Somerset, England: support for a previously unrecognized temperate interval in the British Quaternary record

Abstract

ABSTRACTAlthough fossil assemblages from the late Early Pleistocene are very rare in Britain, the site of Westbury Cave in Somerset, England, has the potential to address this gap. The mammal fossils recovered previously from the Siliceous Member in Westbury Cave, though few in number, have hinted at an age for the deposits that is as yet unparalleled in Britain. Here, we describe the first bona fide occurrence of Hippopotamus in the British Early Pleistocene, discovered during recent reinvestigation of the Siliceous Member. The hippo fossil indicates a refined biochronological age of ca. 1.5–1.07 Ma for the Siliceous Member and a palaeoclimate that was warm and humid, which accords well with previous palaeoenvironmental inferences. A synthesis of late Early Pleistocene hippo occurrences suggests that the Siliceous Member hippo may have been part of an early colonization of north‐west Europe by these megaherbivores, possibly during MIS (Marine Oxygen Isotope Stage) 31. Alternatively, it evidences a currently cryptic northward migration during an even earlier temperate phase. In either case, the Siliceous Member is likely to represent a warm period that has not been recognized previously in the British Quaternary record.