INTRODUCTION

In the area now known as the British Isles, the response of mammalian species to the major environmental changes which took place during the Quaternary Period include some of the most dramatic changes in faunal composition known from any part of the geological succession, anywhere in the world. To illustrate how the distribution of mammals was affected, this chapter focuses on the later Quaternary faunal history of Britain during a major temperate interglacial period and throughout the succeeding cold phase (Devensian).

To an observer standing at the top of London's Northumberland Avenue and looking across Trafalgar Square towards the National Gallery, the only non-human fauna likely to be visible today is a large flock of feral pigeons, Landseer's four bronze lions and the equestrian statue of King Charles I. Yet just beneath the surface of this scene the fossil remains of hippopotamus, straight-tusked elephant and narrow-nosed rhinoceros are abundant (Franks, 1960). An eastwards glance down the Strand past Charing Cross Station would probably show nothing but a mottled red and black scene of buses and taxis, yet beneath the buildings all around lie the bones and teeth of mammoth, reindeer and woolly rhinoceros (Sutcliffe, 1985). All of these fossils date from the later part of the Quaternary Period, the geologically recent past, and the all too obvious message is that things have not always been as they appear today.