T H E MAMMALIA OF THE STUTTON BRICKEARTH b y HAROLD E . P .
SPENCER
Since 1942 a series of visits has been made to the River Cliff section at Stutton Ness, near Holbrook. Düring that period of time a series of mammalian remains of the last Inter-glacial, {roughly a hundred thousand years ago) has been assembled in the Ipswich Museum collection. For these thanks are due to members of the family of Sir Clavering Fison, Mr. H. W. Packard, Mr. and Mrs. Carreck, F. W. Simpson and others. T h e list of animals represented includes two elephants, Elephas (Hesperoloxodon) antiquus and Elephas (Mammuthus) primigenius : Bos or Bison ; Rhinoceros cf. leptorhinus ; Equtis caballus ; Megaceros giganteus ; Cervus elephas and various microtine fauna : Lion, Panthera leo spelaea, is represented by a fine femur and an incomplete metapodial. An incomplete ulna provisionally referred to lion has now been determined as Cave Bear, Ursus spelaeus. Düring November, Mr. Simpson recovered a rolled shaft of a limb bone which, although partly encrusted, is undoubtedly part of a tibia of pig. Only two birds are represented, by incomplete wing bones, in «ach instance the humerus, one probably a species of goose (collected by F.W.S.), the other a mallard (Anas platyrhinus) (collected by the writer). In an earlier list an erroneous determination of fragments of a smashed radius led to Dama clactoniana being included. This was due to the lack of material for comparison, a deficiency since filled. Recently the bone was noticed, when new material was being added to the collection, and recognised as belonging to a pig. This Observation is of considerable interest as it chances to have been the first fossil bone of Sus scrofa recorded as being discovered in Suffolk. T h e Museum now has three bones of Sus from Stutton ; one, the distal end of a metapodial (found by Mrs. Carreck), and the distal end of a tibia was noted amongst undetermined fragmentary bones. Most fossil remains of animals are certainly those of d r o a n e d beasts, and, although pigs must have existed in numbers during prehistoric times, it is evident they avoided being caught by floods in the bottoms of Valleys. Among the specimens collected by Mr. Simpson is a portion of the skull of an embryo elephant. An uncut milk tooth and a minute section of a tusk were collected from Harkstead, on the east side of Holbrook Bay by H.E.P.S. and the late Miss N. F . Layard discovered a similar tooth of an embryo in the loam of Stoke Hill at the south end of Ipswich tunnel. During 1948, part of a mandible of an embryo elephant was recovered from an excavation f o r a sewer near Luther Road School, Maidenhall.