Vultures are not known for their museum conservation skills, but perhaps that ought to change.

Scientists have discovered an unlikely record of human history d eep within layers of bone debris left by generations of bearded vultures and their bone-crunching babies, carefully preserved by the birds across the centuries.

There are only 309 breeding pairs of bearded vultures ( Gypaetus barbatus ) remaining in Europe. But back in the 19th century, they inhabited hollows in cliff faces across the continent, including the Iberian Peninsula.

All that remains of these now-extinct lineages in southern Spain are their nest sites, or 'eyries', some of which have sat unattended for 130 years.

Cliff-front property is hard to come by, so many raptors keep intergenerational nest sites 'in the

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