The Cromer Forest-bed Formation, sometimes known as the Cromer Forest Bed, is a geological formation in

Norfolk Norfolk ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and eas ...

, England. It consists of river

gravel Gravel () is a loose aggregation of rock fragments. Gravel occurs naturally on Earth as a result of sedimentation, sedimentary and erosion, erosive geological processes; it is also produced in large quantities commercially as crushed stone. Gr ...

s, estuary and floodplain sediments predominantly silt, sand, and muds as well as peat along the coast of northern Norfolk. The Cromer Forest Bed itself varies in age from about 2 to 0.5 million years ago, from the

Early Pleistocene The Early Pleistocene is an unofficial epoch (geology), sub-epoch in the international geologic timescale in chronostratigraphy, representing the earliest division of the Pleistocene Epoch within the ongoing Quaternary Period. It is currently esti ...

to early

Middle Pleistocene The Chibanian, more widely known as the Middle Pleistocene (its previous informal name), is an Age (geology), age in the international geologic timescale or a Stage (stratigraphy), stage in chronostratigraphy, being a division of the Pleistocen ...

, though the most fossiliferous strata, such as the West Runton Freshwater Bed date to towards the end of deposition during the early Middle Pleistocene. The fossiliferous West Runton Freshwater Bed is the type locality for the

Cromerian Stage The Cromerian Stage or Cromerian Complex, also called the Cromerian (), is a stage in the Pleistocene glacial history of north-western Europe, mostly occurring more than half a million years ago. It is named after the East Anglian town of Cromer in ...

of the early Middle Pleistocene between 0.8 and 0.5 million years ago. Some fossils from the Cromer Forest Bed likely come from Early Pleistocene layers, though many finds are found out of stratigraphic context. It is about thick and is exposed in cliff section near the village of West Runton.

Paleontology and paleobotany

For over a century this formation, named after the local town of

Cromer Cromer ( ) is a coastal town and civil parish on the north coast of the North Norfolk district of the county of Norfolk, England. It is north of Norwich, northwest of North Walsham and east of Sheringham on the North Sea coastline. The local ...

, has been famous for its assemblage of

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserve ...

mammal remains, containing the diverse remains of numerous taxa. Species of deer recovered include those of ''

Eucladoceros ''Eucladoceros'' (Greek language, Greek for "well-branched antler") is an extinct genus of large deer whose fossils have been discovered across Eurasia, from Europe to China, spanning from the Late Pliocene-Early Pleistocene. It is noted for i ...

'', '' Praemegaceros'', '' Megaloceros/Praedama savini,'' the early moose relative '' Cervalces latifrons'', as well as

red deer The red deer (''Cervus elaphus'') is one of the largest deer species. A male red deer is called a stag or Hart (deer), hart, and a female is called a doe or hind. The red deer inhabits most of Europe, the Caucasus Mountains region, Anatolia, Ir ...

fallow deer Fallow deer is the common name for species of deer in the genus ''Dama'' of subfamily Cervinae. There are two living species, the European fallow deer (''Dama dama''), native to Europe and Anatolia, and the Persian fallow deer (''Dama mesopotamic ...

, and roe deer. Remains of

carnivora Carnivora ( ) is an order of placental mammals specialized primarily in eating flesh, whose members are formally referred to as carnivorans. The order Carnivora is the sixth largest order of mammals, comprising at least 279 species. Carnivor ...

ns include those of the large lion ''

Panthera fossilis ''Panthera fossilis'' (also known as ''Panthera leo fossilis'' or ''Panthera spelaea fossilis'') is an extinct species of Felidae, cat belonging to the genus ''Panthera,'' known from remains found in Eurasia spanning the Middle Pleistocene and po ...

'', the sabertooth cat ''

Homotherium ''Homotherium'' is an extinct genus of Homotherini, scimitar-toothed cat belonging to the extinct subfamily Machairodontinae that inhabited North America, Eurasia, and Africa, as well as possibly South America during the Pliocene and Pleistocene ...

'', the "European jaguar" ''Panthera gombaszoegensis'' the early wolf ''

Canis mosbachensis ''Canis mosbachensis'' is an extinct wolf that inhabited Europe from the late Early Pleistocene to the Middle Pleistocene, around 1.4 million to 400,000 years ago. ''Canis mosbachensis'' is widely considered to have descended from the earlier '' ...

'', cave hyena,

brown bear The brown bear (''Ursus arctos'') is a large bear native to Eurasia and North America. Of the land carnivorans, it is rivaled in size only by its closest relative, the polar bear, which is much less variable in size and slightly bigger on av ...

, wildcat (''

Felis lunensis ''Felis lunensis,'' or the Martelli's cat is an extinct felid of the subfamily Felinae. Evolution and taxonomy Around 12 million years ago, the genus ''Felis'' appeared and eventually gave rise to many of the modern small cats. ''Felis lunen ...

)'', and

lynx A lynx ( ; : lynx or lynxes) is any of the four wikt:extant, extant species (the Canada lynx, Iberian lynx, Eurasian lynx and the bobcat) within the medium-sized wild Felidae, cat genus ''Lynx''. The name originated in Middle Engl ...

. The large hippopotamus ''

Hippopotamus antiquus ''Hippopotamus antiquus'' is an extinct species of the genus ''Hippopotamus'' that ranged across Europe during the Early and Middle Pleistocene. It was considerably larger than the living hippopotamus (''Hippopotamus amphibius''). Description ...

'' has also been recovered probably from Cromerian aged layers. The West Runton Mammoth, a largely complete skeleton of the steppe mammoth (''Mammuthus trogontherii'') is one of the most best preserved finds found in the West Runton Freshwater Bed. Other proboscideans found in the Cromer Forest Bed include those of the earlier mammoth ''

Mammuthus meridionalis ''Mammuthus meridionalis'', sometimes called the southern mammoth, is an extinct species of mammoth native to Eurasia during the Early Pleistocene. Reaching a size exceeding modern elephants, unlike later Eurasian mammoth species, it was largely ...

'', as well as the

straight-tusked elephant The straight-tusked elephant (''Palaeoloxodon antiquus'') is an extinct species of elephant that inhabited Europe and Western Asia during the Middle Pleistocene, Middle and Late Pleistocene. One of the largest known elephant species, mature full ...

(''Palaeoloxodon antiquus''). The bison '' Bison schoetensacki'' has also been found in the Cromer Forest Bed. A variety of birds are also known from the Cromer Forest Bed.

Archaeology

The oldest human footprints outside Africa, the

Happisburgh footprints The Happisburgh footprints were a set of fossilized Hominidae, hominid footprints that date to the end of the Early Pleistocene, around 850–950,000 years ago. They were discovered in May 2013 in a newly uncovered sediment layer of the Cromer F ...

as well as

handaxes A hand axe (or handaxe or Acheulean hand axe) is a prehistoric stone tool with two faces that is the longest-used tool in human history. It is made from stone, usually flint or chert that has been "reduced" and shaped from a larger piece by kn ...

and

bison A bison (: bison) is a large bovine in the genus ''Bison'' (from Greek, meaning 'wild ox') within the tribe Bovini. Two extant taxon, extant and numerous extinction, extinct species are recognised. Of the two surviving species, the American ...

bones with cut marks were also found in layers considered to belong to this deposit near Happisburgh, dated to around 1 million to 780,000 years ago.

References

External links

Gibbard, P.L., S. Boreham, K.M. Cohen and A. Moscariello, 2007
''Global correlation tables for the Quaternary''
Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, England. Stone Age Britain Pleistocene Archaeology of Norfolk

Paleontology and paleobotany

Archaeology

See also

References

Further reading

External links