Late Pleistocene and Holocene small mammal (Lipotyphla, Rodentia, Lagomorpha) remains from Medvezhyi Klyk Cave in the Southern Russian Far East

V.E. Omelko, Y.V. Kuzmin, M.P. Tiunov, L.L. Voyta and G.S. Burr

Proceedings of the Zoological Institute RAS, 2020, 324(1): 124–145 · https://doi.org/10.31610/trudyzin/2020.324.1.124

Full text

Abstract

Late Pleistocene-Holocene faunal complexes of small mammals (Lipotyphla, Rodentia, and Lagomorpha) from the Russian Far East are described for the first time. We used material from the Medvezhyi Klyk Cave, located in Southern Sikhote-Alin. The numerous fossil findings from the cave display a remarkable taxonomic diversity and high degree of preservation. AMS ¹⁴C dating used for determination of deposits age. The Holocene sediments were divided into three periods: Early, Middle, and Late. The Pleistocene deposits age was not exactly determined, but under approximately estimation it can reach 50–60 ka. Thirty-nine species were found, including one member of the extinct genus of arvicolins. There are six faunal complexes identified from the studied Late Pleistocene and Holocene deposits. In general, the faunal complexes characterized by the dominance of Craseomys rufocanus within rodents, Sorex caecutiens within lipotyphlans; and relatively stability composition of most number of the dominant, codominant and subdominant species. Accordingly, the faunal complexes were described by means of two determining criteria only: relative number of species; and presence or absence of certain species. The dominant species are eurytopic and so they cannot use for reconstruction of the paleoenvironment.

Key words

AMS ¹⁴C dating, Holocene, Lagomorpha, Late Pleistocene, Lipotyphla, Micromammals, Rodentia, Russian Far East

Submitted March 6, 2019 · Accepted February 18, 2020 · Published March 24, 2020

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