If you spent your lunch hour thumbing through the International Journal of Osteoarchaeology you'll already know about the lions that were found at the Tower of London, but for those of you who didn't want to get your journal full of Meal Deal crumbs the BBC are also covering it.
Two lion skulls unearthed at the Tower of London have been dated to Medieval times, shedding light on the lost institution of the "Royal Menagerie". It also shows the relationship between England's early monarchs and the "king of beasts" was not just a symbolic one. The lions may have been among the first to turn up in Northern Europe since the big cats went extinct in the region at the end of the last Ice Age.
The 13th and 15th century cats are thought to have been given as gifts from foreign monarchs - despite protests from Ye Olde Peta.
Our current monarchy probably gets wistful over the good old days when people cared enough to give them wild animals so we'd like to reintroduce the custom by offering Liz and her offspring a parrot that we found outside Huntingdon Life Sciences called Sneezy.
