Birds
and mammals
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Birds
have fragile bones which do not fossilise well and as a consequence
are extremely rare in the London clay. Their remains are most often
found as fragments of individual bones amongst the accumulations of
pyrite on the beach. Phosphatic nodules containing bird remains are
very uncommon. Their occurrence in nodules is attributed to regurgitated
stomach contents of large carnivores by some collectors. Of course this
is pure speculation, but would account for the unusual lining up in
parallel on the surface of nodules. Mammals are the most uncommon of
all the vertebrate fossils found on the island. Considering that the
London clay of Sheppey was laid down approximately 100 kilometres from
the nearest shoreline it is amazing that any are found at all. Fewer
than ten recorded specimens have been found on Sheppey in the last 300
years.
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