Woolly rhino skull goes on display at Wells and Mendip Museum
A 50,000-year-old woolly rhino skull found in a Mendip cave has gone on display at the Wells and Mendip Museum, with more remains still to be excavated.
The Full Story
A plain summary built from the channels that reported this story.
A 50,000-year-old woolly rhino skull has gone on display at the Wells and Mendip Museum after it was found in a cave on the Mendip Hills.
The skull was uncovered last year by archaeologists at the Fairy Cave quarry. It has been described as a rare and unusual find.
Researchers believe the woolly rhino was about 40 years old when it died. They think it was part of a complete individual that fell through a crevasse into the cave and died accidentally. The discovery is important because, along with the skull, more parts of the body appear to be present.
Most of those remains have not yet been excavated. Researchers hope to return and recover the rest.
Woolly rhinos were icons of the ice age. They had a huge metre-long blade-like horn on the front of the nose and a shorter, more conical horn further back on the skull.
Key Claims
Claims reported during this story's coverage, grouped by how many channels reported each one. Select a dot to see the source excerpt.
| Claim |  |
|---|---|
| Only on one channel | |
| A woolly rhino skull has gone on display at the Wells and Mendip Museum. | |
| Archaeologists uncovered the skull last year at the Fairy Cave quarry in the Mendip Hills. | |
| Researchers estimate the woolly rhino was about 40 years old when it died. | |
Channel Perspectives
What each channel focused on, with key quotes.
BBC ONE West gave the story a short regional slot, focusing on the public display at the Wells and Mendip Museum and the hope that more of the skeleton can be recovered. The tone was factual and local. It included a brief explainer on the rhino's horns and the animal's likely accidental death, but did not cover wider scientific or national angles.
- “The skull of a woolly rhino has gone on display at the Wells and Mendip Museum.”
- “It was uncovered last year by archaeologists at the Fairy Cave quarry on the Mendip Hills.”
- “we think it was part of a complete individual who met an accidental death falling through a crevasse into this cave”
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