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ANCIENT HORNS Woolly rhinos prepare to do battle ...

Scientists have pulled a 6-millionyear-old chunk of ice ...

Whether winter-faded ferns, the spindly harvestman or the tyrannical stare of an irate chicken, through-lines from the prehistoric to our modern age are all around us in November, says John Lewis-Stempel

Q What is the coldest winter the UK has experienced? A In more recent times the Met Office points to the winter of 1963, which was the coldest since 1740, with temperatures dropping to as low as -20°C

I looked down at my hands, shielded in red mittens, and flexed my fingers. They were badly blistered from frostnip, and I winced. It was early March and, despite the azure sky above, it was a bone-chi