An interpretive drawing of William Buckland crawling into Kirkdale Cave where he found extinct cave hyenas and the remains of their prey. Drawn by Buckland’s friend William Conybeare.
In the summer of 1821, stone-quarry workers discovered a cave in Kirkdale, Yorkshire, that was littered with the remains of dozens of animal species, including hippos, rhinos, tigers, elephants, and, most numerous of all, hyenas. Upon hearing about the find, English geologist and Anglican minister William Buckland went to investigate, and surmised that the cave, which he dubbed the Hyena Den, had at some point in the ancient past served as the home of a pack of hyenas, which dragged their diverse prey to the cave to devour, even occasionally eating each other. But such ferocious creatures didn’t exactly fit with the minister’s idea of a biblical past.
By the beginning of the 19th century, most of the scientific community had accepted that the planet ...
