 The site is important for many reasons, including the degree of preservation of ancient land surfaces, the impressive total extent of the palaeo-landscape beyond the quarries (over 26 km wide), its huge quantity of well-preserved animal bones, its numerous flint artifacts, and its hominin bones which are among some of the most ancient found yet in Europe.Several of the animal bones are the oldest found specimens of their species, such as the wing bone of the great auk found at the site in 1989.The combination of bones, stone artifacts, and the geology of the landscape gives a very complete picture of the coastal plain as it existed half a million years ago.