. Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History), Geology. 74 PLEISTOCENE RODENTS. Fig. 5. Distribution of remains of Sciurus whitei Hinton in the British Isles. No other fossil remains of this species have been found in the British Isles, though a number of fir cones from Cromerian deposits of the Forest Bed of Norfolk bear marks suggesting that they had been gnawed by squirrels (Newton 1882a). Newton (1881, 1882a, 1891) described and figured a humerus from Ostend, Norfolk (57), which agreed closely in form with that of the living red squirrel, 5. vulgaris Linn., but he was not certain whet
. Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History), Geology. 74 PLEISTOCENE RODENTS. Fig. 5. Distribution of remains of Sciurus whitei Hinton in the British Isles. No other fossil remains of this species have been found in the British Isles, though a number of fir cones from Cromerian deposits of the Forest Bed of Norfolk bear marks suggesting that they had been gnawed by squirrels (Newton 1882a). Newton (1881, 1882a, 1891) described and figured a humerus from Ostend, Norfolk (57), which agreed closely in form with that of the living red squirrel, 5. vulgaris Linn., but he was not certain whether it came from the Forest Bed or from a Recent alluvial deposit. On the continent of Europe, remains of Sciurus are known from a number of Early and Middle Pleistocene localities in France and Hungary, though they have usually been left without specific determination. Janossy (1962) discovered remains of a squirrel approaching 5. whitei at the Middle Pleistocene locality of Tarko in Hungary, and described them as belonging to a new subspecies, S. whitei hungaricus Janossy 1962. In his opinion 5. whitei may represent an ancestral form of 5. vulgaris. Sciurus vulgaris Linnaeus 1758 Red squirrel The red squirrel is a widespread Palaearctic species, still common in parts of the British Isles. It occurs principally in woodland, but also in scrub beyond the Arctic circle. Its remains have been found in Late Pleistocene sediments of Europe from France to the Ukraine, but are nowhere common. There are no indisputable records of 5. vulgaris in the Pleistocene of the British Isles. Its remains are known from Dowel and Langwith Caves, Derbyshire (71, 72 : Bramwell i960, Mullins 1913). The Dowel Cave record is from a Holocene stratum. The stratigraphic position of the remains from Langwith Cave was not determined, but the occurrence of Rattus rattus Linn., the black rat, suggests that some Holocene mammalian remains were present in addition to the rich Pleistocene fauna of the Ple
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