ABSTRACT
The later Middle Pleistocene comprises the D-Holstein interglacial and the Riss glaciation, the latter perhaps including the incompletely known E-Ilford interglacial, probably intercalated between Riss I and II. Most fossils from this time come from river deposits, of which those of the Thames in the London area are of special importance. The oldest fossiliferous terrace is the 100-foot terrace, dating from a time when the sea level was about a hundred feet higher than at present. The Ilford Terrace at 40 ft. has a fauna that resembles that from Swanscombe in some respects, but it lacks the fallow deer so common in the D-Holsteinian times and includes an early form of the true woolly mammoth rather than the steppe mammoth. The D-Holsteinian interglacial is represented in some caves, for instance the cave at Lunel-Viel in southern France and the Heppenloch near Gutenberg in Wurttemberg. Both sites, like Grays Thurrock in Essex, have yielded the otherwise rare Gibraltar macaque.
