Stump Cross Caverns house one of the important Pleistocene fossil bone beds of the UK. Yet, the dates of the Banwell Bone Cave Mammal Assemblage Zone (MAZ), to which these belong, have not yet been well constrained. Here we present new U-Th dates showing that Late-MIS 5 bison-reindeer-wolverine fauna was present in northern England at least as early as 91.9 ± 0.5 ka (the oldest date yet published); and that the Banwell Bone Cave fauna probably occupied the Yorkshire Dales from soon after ∼100 ka to 80 ka (late MIS 5c-early MIS 5a). This adds to the very small number of dates for this fauna, is somewhat older than the timing proposed in the literature, and suggests that the fauna arrived in NW Britain more than 5 kyr in advance of SW Britain. We also found an older bone bed dating from 175 to 172 ka, MIS 6d. This is only the second reported occurrence in the Yorkshire Dales of a fauna that pre-dates the Last Interglacial. Our results confirm that calcite deposition in this cave is precluded during interglacial peaks by local flooding, but at other times is similar to other caves of NW Europe. The oldest dates, on calcites from the uppermost levels, show dewatering by at least ∼430 ka (early MIS 11), adding to our understanding of the antiquity of the caves and the geomorphology of the region.

树桩十字架洞穴是英国重要的更新世化石骨床之一。但是，它们所属的班韦尔骨洞哺乳动物集合区（MAZ）的日期尚未受到很好的限制。在这里，我们提供了新的U-Th日期，表明MIS 5晚期北美野牛-驯鹿-狼ver动物区系至少早在91.9±0.5 ka时就已存在（迄今最古老的日期）。并且班维尔骨洞动物区系可能在约100 ka至80 ka后不久占领了约克郡山谷（MIS 5c晚期至MIS 5a早期）。这增加了该动植物的数量，比文献中提出的时间要早​​一些，这表明该动植物比西南SW早了5年到达英国西北。我们还发现MIS 6d的骨床年代从175到172 ka。这只是约克郡山谷中第二次发生于上一次冰间期之前的动物。我们的结果证实，在局部冰期期间，在冰间峰期间，该方解石的沉积被排除在外，但在其他时间类似于欧洲西北部的其他洞穴。在最高层的方解石上，最古老的日期显示至少脱水了约430 ka（MIS 11早期），这加深了我们对洞穴古代和该地区地貌的了解。