Between 2016 and 2018, a team of researchers at a dig site near Cambridge, England, found a mildly disturbing but archaeologically fascinating ditch filled with 8,000 ancient frog bones. Was it some ancient pagan ritual? Perhaps the bodies of some failed arcane experiment? The researchers were baffled and spent the past decade or so trying to figure out what 8,000 frog bones in a ditch in England could mean.
Now, scientists at Bournemouth University and the Museum of London Archaeology think they’ve figured out who put them there. To their surprise, it’s an animal that says hoo.
As reported by the BBC and detailed in the journal Environmental Archaeology, scientists say the bones are the remains of a frog buffet dined upon by short-eared owls and hen harriers who eat like kings during the Roman period.
Scientists Finally Solved the Mystery of 8,000 Ancient Frog Bones Found in a Ditch
By analyzing how the bones were broken and measuring the tiny upper-arm humerus bones, the researchers realized that hungry predatory birds devoured thousands of young frogs over a single winter.
The researchers say much of this was indirectly fueled by human activity. Local settlers had cleared much of the dense forest to graze their livestock, inadvertently stripping away the natural tree cover that protected local frog populations.
The defendant wetlands were retreating at the time, which was perfect for frog breeding, and even more perfect for hungry birds looking to snack on breeding frogs. The frogs were defenseless as they sat out in the open grassland. The birds gorged themselves on frogs, leaving thousands and thousands of their bones behind.
By the time they were done, the leg left behind a 46-foot ditch stuffed with 8,000 bones as evidence of their incredible feast. A meal so epic it baffled scientists nearly 2,000 years later.
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