Kents Cavern

Kents Cavern is a cave system in Torquay, Devon, England [1]. It is notable both for its archaeological and geological features [1]. Handaxes found in the "Breccia" layer of the cavern indicate that the area in the vicinity of the cave system was occupied during the Acheulean period of the Lower Paleolithic, no later than Marine Isotope Stage 12 (~478-424,000 years ago) [1]. Mousterian stone tools found in the cavern during excavations in the 19th century indicate that the cave was later occupied by Neanderthals during the late Middle Paleolithic (likely sometime roughly around 60-40,000 years ago) [1]. A prehistoric upper jawbone fragment of a modern human was discovered in the cavern during a 1927 excavation by the Torquay Natural History Society and named Kents Cavern 4 [1]. The cave was where the holotype canine teeth of the sabertooth cat Homotherium latidens were collected by John MacEnery in 1826, and formally described by Richard Owen in 1846 [1].