Secrets of the past unlocked in old bones

Bones can reveal a lot about the animals we once shared the planet with, the ones humans never got to meet and even a lot about the human race we are as yet unaware of, says Dick Warner.

Irish caves, and particularly bones from caves, are a rich source of information about our past. They can tell us about extinct animals and birds and they can tell us about our own human ancestors.

The trouble is that it’s almost too rich a source. Tens of thousands of bones and bone fragments have been collected. They get catalogued and stored away but, at any given time, there are always far more bones than there are people who can identify them and understand their significance. It’s a fairly specialised branch of archaeology.