THE
ESSEX NATURALIST
BEING THE
Journal of the Essex Field Club.
VOLUME XXI.
SOME REMARKS ON THE PLEISTOCENE
MAMMALIA.
Being a Presidential Address Delivered to the Club at the Annual
Meeting on 29th March, 1924.
By Sir ARTHUR SMITH WOODWARD, LL.D., F.R.S., &c.
(With 2 Plates.)
MOST deposits of the Pleistocene period are so limited in
extent, and so isolated, that their relative age can only
be determined by the fossil remains of Mammals which they
contain. A general chronological succession has now been
established in western Europe, by collecting and comparing the
evidence from certain localities in which two or more faunas, and
perhaps two or more types of stone implements, occur in a regular
succession of strata (as in some of the French caves). Much,
however, depends on the correct naming or interpretation of
the various mammalian bones and teeth ; and conclusions
can only be satisfactory when the material is ample and well
preserved.
An exact and detailed study of the Pleistocene Mammalia
is therefore of importance to the geologist. When combined
with the information which a geologist can afford, it is also of
great interest to the zoologist. They are the last of the Mammalia
which developed before the world was subjected to the inter-
ference of man. They are the animals with which he had at first
to contend for a livelihood. Some of them are the animals
which he brought under control and eventually domesticated,
thus making civilisation possible.
In Essex there are four great Pleistocene deposits of Mam-
malian remains which have long attracted attention—those of