Late‐glacial mammoth skeletons ( Mammuthus primigenius ) from Condover (Shropshire, UK): anatomy, pathology, taphonomy and chronological significance

The Condover mammoths, discovered by chance in 1986, are a remarkably well‐preserved assemblage of partial skeletons unique in western and central Europe. The skeletons were preserved in a kettle‐hole infill and recovered ex situ , requiring careful anatomical reconstruction. This revealed the skeleton of a 28‐year‐old adult male woolly mammoth ( Mammuthus primigenius ), largely complete except for the cranium, the partial skeletons of four or five juveniles in the age range 3–6 years, plus sparse remains of a subadult individual. The adult skeleton bears several traces of pathology, particularly a badly fractured but re‐healed scapula. The presence of blowfly puparia within bone cavities, together with other environmental data and a consideration of mammoth biology, allow a detailed reconstruction of the taphonomy of the skeletons, which appear to have become mired within the kettle‐hole. The discovery of complete skeletons from a stratified, dated context contributes strong evidence for the survival of mammoths in Britain and western Europe into the Devensian Late‐glacial ca. 14.5–14.0 ka cal BP, within Greenland Interstadial 1. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.