Discussion

Abstract

Professor F. W. Shotton said that important information had been obtained from a very limited sample of material. The faunal list might appear small compared with that from Upton Warren (which was in process of publication) but when it was realized that over half a ton of sediment from Upton Warren was washed, whereas the material available from Fladbury amounted to only a few pounds, it would be appreciated how rich the Fladbury deposit was and how informative it could be if ever working of the gravel-pit allowed examination of new material. As it was, Mr. Coope had demonstrated a land fauna representing a more rigorous climate than that shown by any other fauna yet studied in the British Pleistocene. It was to be expected that insects would provide answers to many questions of ecology, but Mr. Coope had also, by a selection of appropriate species, shown how valuable beetles could be in the evaluation of past climate. There was no doubt that the study of Pleistocene insects opened up a wide and important field of future work. Dr. M. E. Tomlinson said that she was particularly pleased that the result of the carbon 14 dating of the peat gave added support to the view of Dr. L. J. Wills that No. 2 Avon Terrace and the Main Terrace of the Severn, into which it merged at Tewkesbury, could be correlated with the last glaciation of the West Midlands when Irish Sea ice occupied the Cheshire plain.