William Buckland and the British Bone Caves

Making of the hyena jawbone

1821 Kirkdale, Yorkshire. Quarrymen broke into a hidden cave containing numerous bones. At first these were used for road repairs. Reverant William Buckland, the first professor of Geology at Oxford, soon visited and carefully analysed the cave and its contents. After studying Kirdale Cave, Buckland came to the astounding conclusion that the bones were the remains of animals dragged into the cave by a clan of hyenas. The cave was an ancient hyena den. The animals once lived here in a warmer Yorkshire together with hippos, elephants, lions, rhinos,...

Still believing that the Noachian Flood was a historical event, Buckland concluded that the bones were antediluvian or older than the Deluge. Kirkdale Cave was a window into an unknown world lost in deep time. Modern dating techniaues have revealed that the bones are 125,000 years old.

It was a pitty we did not have a 3D model of this jawbown available for our video production. Luckily, our artist Simon was willing to give it a try. Only based on one picture he molded the impressive teeth of the animal in clay. Afterwards, they were meticulously painted and mounted in an EVA foam jawbone. After texturing the model the result is astounding!

 

And here is the final product!

 

Making of the woolly rhinoceros bone

We re-enacted the discovery of a humerus of the woolly rhinoceros, found in Dream Cave located near Wirksworth in Derbyshire,U.K.

In 1822 a skeloton of the 3.5 m (11.5 foot) long animal was found by lead miners in this cave. The bone is really massive, measuring 42 cm long, and could not be substituded with a cow's bone. Fortunately, we were able to find a digital file with the 3D model of this illustrious bone. Unfortunately, 3D printing this model would cost a small fortune. So we decided to make it ourself. 

First, the model (an stl file) was digitally sliced into 1 cm thick pieces, just like a salami. These slices were printed on paper with some marking holes for the wooden dowels to hold the model together and keep the slices in the right orientation. The drawings were cut out of the paper with sissors and glued onto 1 cm thick 1 EVA foam with a density of 100 kg/m³.  Then each piece was cut out the foam with a sharp knive. Also the marker holes were drilled with a 1 cm drill bit. Then all slices were stacked and glued together on the wooden dowels with a diameter of 1 cm. The result is a rough but recognisable a massive humerus. Then the model was sanded by Simon with power tools and coated with a base layer of paint and finally textured. The resulting model is a very convincing humerus of a woolly rhinoceros!

 

Fossil poop

The geologist William Conybeare drew this cartoon of William Buckland sticking his head into a hyena den to honor Buckland's ground breaking analysis of fossils found at Kirkdale cave.

In Kirkdale Cave, Buckland found more than just bones from tropical species such as hyenas, hippos, rhinos and so on. He found strange white balls and on closer examination concluded they were fossil hyena excrement. Buckland was the first to analyse fossil poo and call it coprolites. To prove that the balls were indeed from hyenas, he even bred a hyena named Billy. He fed the animal carcasses and examined its poop and the gnarled bones it left behind. The teeth marks matched those found on the fossil bones at Kirkdale. This strengthened Buckland's theory that the cave was once a hyena den in a much warmer Britain.