It's official: the first mammals were Wombles!

Scrolling through the BBC News app the other day, I came across this science article. They have found rare and perfect fossil skeletons of a small shrew-like mammal that thrived (mainly underground, presumably) during the Dinosaur Age. 

This made me sit up. Good heavens! All was now clear. These weren't mere shrews. These were Wombles. Here's a typical Womble - Orinoco:

It's so obvious. Long nose or snout, just like the fossil. Such things as hats and scarves (and tidy bags) wouldn't get fossilised, of course, so their absence doesn't matter. And Wombles live underground! 

I'm so pleased. We first heard of the Wombles of Wimbledon Common in 1973, when they began to appear on children's television. Or possibly - if a parent - one might already have discovered the children's books about the Wombles written by Elizabeth Beresford from 1968. I read one of them once. Full of authentic detail, such as a reference to the number 93 bus route, which in 1978 - when I was living in the general area and working in Wimbledon - ran between Putney, past Wimbledon Common, through Wimbledon Village, and down the hill to Wimbledon proper - past my office in fact - and then onwards. Presumably this bus route was exactly the same ten years earlier, when she began her series of books. And looking route 93 up now, I see that it still does. Astonishing how some things never change! For all I know, bus route 93 ran alongside Wimbledon Common in the time of the dinosaurs, when the place would have been a hot steaming jungle, and dangerous for anyone intent on wombling. Doubtless Great Uncle Bulgaria, the oldest Womble, can recall how it was, and put us right on particulars. 

Anyway, it's so nice to have firm evidence not only that Wombles exist, but have been around for a very long time. 

I've always had a soft spot for Wombles. In 1978, when I moved to London, began working in Wimbledon, and needed suitable things for the flat I'd bought, my step-daughter A--- presented me with a colourful Womble lampshade, featuring all the main Wombles. I used it for years. Later on I bought an LP, The Best of the Wombles - the very flower of Mike Batt's musical genius - and those wombling songs are now on my phone in mp3 form. I think they stand up extraordinarily well in 2024, and have more substance and relevance than most of the stuff now churned out by Taylor Swift, tortured rap and brat artists, and similar lost souls.  

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