Indeed, some caves,
such as the Kirkdale Cavern in Yorkshire, were dens inhabited
during long periods by these animals, and thus contain the remains
of numerous individuals and of successive generations of Hyaenas,
together with innumerable gnawed and bitten bones of their prey.
That the Cave-hyaena was a contemporary with Man in Western Europe
during Post-Glacial times is shown beyond a doubt by the common
association of its bones with human implements.
[Illustration: Fig. 269.--Skull of _Hyoena speloea_, one-fourth
of the natural size. Post-Phocene, Europe.]
Lastly, the so-called Cave-lion (_Felis speloea_), long supposed
to be a distinct species, has been shown to be nothing more than
a large variety of the existing Lion (_Felis leo_). This animal
inhabited Britain and Western Europe in times posterior to the
Glacial period, and was a contemporary of the Cave-hyaena, Cave-bear,
Woolly Rhinoceros, and Mammoth. The Cave-lion also unquestionably
survived into the earlier portion of the human period in Europe.
The Post-Pliocene deposits of Europe have further yielded the
remains of numerous _Rodents_--such as the Beaver, the Northern
Lemming, Marmots, Mice, Voles, Rabbits, &c.--together with the
gigantic extinct Beaver known as the _Trogontherium Cuvieri_
(fig. 270). The great _Castoroides Ohioensis_ of the Post-Pliocene
of North America is also a great extinct Beaver, which reached
a length of about five feet.
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