Quaternary deposits and biostratigraphy in caves and grottoes located in the Southern Urals (Russia)

Abstract

Investigations of the unconsolidated Upper Pleistocene -Holocene cave deposits of the Southern Urals resulted in detailed biostratigraphical and palaeoenvironmental data. Landscapes of this area have a mosaic character. The forests have regional features developed at the transition of Eastern European broadleaved-dark-coniferous taiga and the Southern-Uralian light coniferous forests. The modern mountain mixed forests appeared during the end of the Holocene. The forest-steppes were widespread during Late Neopleistocene -Holocene. The forest vegetation existed during the warm periods (Tabulda, Middle-Late Holocene) and areas covered by forest were reduced during the cold intervals (Kudashevo, Early Holocene). However, refugia of broad-leaved flora existed in the territory of the Southern Urals even during coldest periods. The Late Pleistocene and Holocene mollusc species are Holarctic species that occur in forest-steppe, forest and intrazonal (river banks) ecological biotopes. The Late Pleistocene and Holocene amphibian associations found in caves are characterized by species that prefer forest biotopes. The reptile faunas contain species which inhabited open areas. The Pleistocene and Holocene fish fauna is a characteristic freshwater fauna occurring in a temperate zone: all species currently inhabit the European rivers. The Pleistocene and Holocene avifaunas include species that occur in the modern ornithological faunas of Northern Asia, Central and Northern Europe. The Late Pleistocene fauna was dominated by species that inhabited open and semi-open landscapes whereas, during the Holocene, species that preferred closed biotopes dominated the bird fauna. During the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene disharmonious smallmammal faunas existed in the central and northern parts of the Southern Urals. These faunas included steppe and semi-desert species; lemmings are rare. In the southern part of the Southern Urals and in the Trans-Urals lemmings are absent. Starting from the Middle Holocene there is a gradual change of small-mammal communities. In the Southern Urals forest species replace the predominance of steppe species, and only in the Trans-Urals the steppe small mammal fauna preserved. The modern small-mammal faunal community appeared in the latitudinal part of the Belaya River valley at the end of the Late Holocene. There were relatively little changes in the Southern Urals large mammal fauna at the end of the Late Neopleistocene -beginning of Holocene. The large mammal fauna consisted of eurybiotic species and species that inhabit open landscapes. Species that prefer forest landscapes appeared at the end of the Early Holocene -beginning of the Middle Holocene. Modern large mammal species appeared during the second half of the Late Holocene.

230Th dating of flowstone from Ignatievskaya Cave, Russia: Age constraints of rock art and paleoclimate inferences

“…The animals pictured in Ignatievskaya cave are distinct from post‐Paleolithic open‐air rock art in the area, featuring elks, deer, roe, waterbirds, and occasional bears. The very repertoire of the paintings in Ignatievskaya cave, thus, points toward their Paleolithic age, as the large mammals of the “mammoth fauna” were driven to extinction in Southern Ural at the end of the Pleistocene (Danukalova et al, 2020; Kosintsev and Bachura, 2013).…”

Новые Данные О Птицах Из Средневекового Памятника Уфа-Ii

“…Выводы. Все идентифицированные нами виды за исключением кряквы и домашних птиц были ранее отмечены в списках фаун из других местонахождений позднего голоцена этого региона (Сатаев, 2005;Danukalova et al, 2020).…”

“…Такой территорией является и Южный Урал. Его орнитофауна исследована недостаточно полно (Сатаев, 2005;Danukalova et al, 2020).…”

Application of malacological analysis to reconstruction of regional and local environmental changes: the Cisowa Skała locality (the Carpathians, southern Poland)

“…The mol lus can assem blages found in sed i men tary de pos its can there fore be treated as autochthonous or paraautochthonous malacocenoses that in their eco log i cal struc ture are closely re lated to the con di tions pre vail ing dur ing de po si tion. Stud ies of malacocenoses in de pos its of small karst forms have been under taken in sev eral Eu ro pean coun tries, in par tic u lar in the Czech Re pub lic and Slovakia (e.g., Ložek, 1972aLožek, , b, 1980Ložek, , 1981Ložek, , 1989Ložek, , 2012, Rus sia (e.g., Yakovlev et al, 2013;Danukalova et al, 2014Danukalova et al, , 2020, Hun gary (e.g., Kemencei et al, 2014;Sümegi and Náfrádi, 2015) and Po land (e.g., Stworzewicz, 1973;Nadachowski et al, 1989;Alexandrowicz et al, 1992;Dagan-Gintner et al, 1992;Cyrek et al, 2000;Alexandrowicz and Stworzewicz, 2003;Alexandrowicz, 1992Alexandrowicz, , 2000aAlexandrowicz, , b, 2001Alexandrowicz and Rudzka, 2006;Szymanek et al, 2016;Krajcarz et al, 2020;Wilczyñski et al, 2020).…”