NHER 54030 (Find Spot record) - West Runton Mammoth

December 1990. Discovery.
Following a storm a large pelvic bone of a huge elephant was partly exposed in the face of the Freshwater Bed, which is a dark band of organic-rich sediments in the cliff face that filled an ancient water channel. Subsequent investigation revealed that next to the pelvis was an astragalus (ankle bone). The morphology of the pelvis suggested that this was a male elephant although it was not known whether it was a species of mammoth or straight-tusked elephant known from deposits found in the Cromer Forest Bed Formation.

December 1991. Further investigation following erosion.
More of the Freshwater Bed was eroded and more large bones were exposed in the cliff face.

January 1992. Rescue excavation.
A rescue excavation was undertaken by staff from Cromer Museum, Norwich Castle Museum with the help of volunteers to recover all of the bones that could be reached without tunnelling into the cliff. In total about a quarter of a skeleton were recovered including most of the vertebrae (backbone), the right front limb and the lower jaw. The latter allowed the identification of the species of elephant, which was an early form of mammoth (Mammuthus trogontherii).

1995. Excavation.
In the early stages of the excavation a piece of elephant tusk associated with a hyoid (tongue bone) was recovered near to the top of the Freshwater Bed. These remains were not part of the main elephant skeleton as these were located above the original discoveries and would have belonged to a separate animal that died some years after. More elephant bones were recovered including a left ulna (lower forelimb bone) and a right humerus (upper forelimb bone) that had been left from the 1992 rescue excavation.
See publication (S1) for further details. The results of the excavation are also summarised in (S3).
S. Howard (NLA), 17 May 2010.

2008. Amino acid racimization dating.
See (S2).
S. Howard (NLA), 17 May 2010.

See file for newspaper articles relating to the excavations and conservation of the West Runton Elephant.