Ancient wolverine jaw unearthed in cave project

The jawbone of a wolverine believed to have died more than 90,000 years ago has been discovered in a North Yorkshire cave system.

The prehistoric remains were unearthed by volunteers at Stump Cross Caverns, near Pateley Bridge, as part of ongoing excavation work of a new cave at the site.

Tom Thompson, from Craven Pothole Club, was one of the first people to spot the jaw in the newly disturbed mud and described the Ice Age relic as "incredibly rare".

"I couldn't believe it - we had been hoping for something like this but when I washed it and looked at it, I was really rather taken back," he said.

The wolverine, which can still be found in Arctic and sub-Arctic regions, is part of the weasel family and was last believed to have been seen in the wild in Britain thousands of years ago.

The fossilised discovery contains the lower half of the animal's jawbone, with some teeth, including one large canine still attached.

Thompson said he was emptying buckets of mud when he and fellow caver Rowan Worsman spotted something shiny amongst the dirt.

"I thought, 'that looks like a tooth to me,'" he said.

"When I first saw it, I thought this is either a wolverine or a wolf."

Wolverine bones have been discovered at Stump Cross before, but not since the 1980s, Thompson explained.

"Since then, the stalagmites they are encased in have been dated several times," he said.

"The initial dating method put it down to about 70,000 years but the more recent research has put it to between 80,000 to 90,000 years old."

Other remains found throughout Stump Cross Caverns include reindeer, bison and Arctic fox bones.

Finding animal bones so far beneath the earth could be due to Ice Age conditions exposing the cave shaft which animals fell into, Thompson added.

The cave currently being excavated by Craven Pothole Club and other volunteers was first discovered by the Victorians but has since been inaccessible to the general public.

The ambition is that it will eventually become an extension of the main tourist attraction.

Thompson said he hoped there would be more discoveries to come during the work.

"Everything of interest that we find will be part of a display which will eventually be mounted at the cave," he said.

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