MOLAR TOOTH OF EXTINCT CAVE BEAR - over 500,000 years old - Westbury-sub-Mendip, Somerset

In 1969, blasting in Westbury Quarry exposed a huge cave in the Carboniferous Limestone filled with sediment, and quarry workers subsequently noticed large bones going through the crushing plant.

The cave was found to contain the fossil bones and teeth of animals that occupied the cave in the middle of the Ice Age including jaguar, rhinoceros and the extinct cave bear Ursus deningeri.  Analysis of the cave bear teeth has revealed that females gave birth in the cave and sought shelter there with young cubs.

Excavations by the Natural History Museum in 1975 found that the cave contained a complex sequence of deposits from several cold and warm periods, dating back over 800,000 years. There were also worked flints which at that time were the earliest evidence of human presence in Britain.

The quarry was visited by fossil collectors in the early 1970s, prior to the Natural History Museum’s involvement, and this fossil is from one of these old collections.

This is a large molar tooth, but it is not quite complete. it is presented in a vintage glass museum display box.