Elena G. Lapteva

The First Finding of a Frozen Holocene Bison (Bison priscus Bojanus, 1827) Carcass in Chukotka

296 Findings of Pleistocene mammals from permafrost of the northern parts of Asia and North America are important sources of data on the biology of these spee cies and their natural environment. To date, compree hensive studies on the remains of mammoths, woolly rhinoceros, horses, and primeval bison have been carr ried out [1–4]. However, similar findings of large mammals of the Holocene Age have been almost unknown until recently. A partial carcass of a primeval bison (Bison priscus Boj.) of the Holocene Age was found in 2012 in Bilibino region of Chukchi Autonoo mous Region, at the mouth of the Rauchua River (69° N, 166° E; Fig. 1). The study of this finding yielded data on the biology and natural environment of primee val bison on Chukotka in subglacial time. At the place of the finding, the bank of the river has a height of about 0.8 m (at low water). Its deposits are represented by late Pleistocene and Holocene icy aleurites. Superficial erosion of the River and closee ness to the sea determine marked oscillations of the water level due to surge phenomena, as well as rainfall floods, which exposed the carcass. By the moment of finding, the remains of the bison had been lying on the surface of the ground for a long time. A croup with both hind limbs remained, as well as a big piece of skin from belly and sides. There is little fat in some areas of soft tissues and under the skin. The bones of fore limbs, including soft tissues, vertebrae, broken ribs, the pelvis, the femoral bones, fur with a volume of 50 L in a dried condition, and gastric conn tents with a volume of 8 L were found. Some large tubular bones and thoracic vertebrae have signs of intense gnawing by a large predator. Primary sex charr acteristics were not preserved. Indirect characteristics, such as the size and proportions of the basidigital bone, also did not allow identifying the sex of the anii mal. No data on the season of the death is available. Individual age of the bison, according to knitting of epiphysis with diaphysis, was 6–8 years [5]. Radiocarbon dating. Until recently, the geologically oldest finding in Asia was a bison bone from Taimyr with the radiocarbon age of 8860 ± 40 BC (Beta 148623) [6]. The finding of the bison from the Rauu chua River also …

Fossil fur as a new source of information on the Ice Age biota.

48 From the beginning of the study of the Ice Age, our knowledge on the biotas of that time has been based on mammalian remains, associated organic remains (those of other vertebrates, invertebrates, and plants), and formations hosting these remains. To obtain as complete information as possible on paleolandscapes and paleobiotas, it is sometimes necessary to use data from cuts located far apart, and local factors may dis� tort the reconstruction. In 2002, on the middle Bol’shaya Chukoch’ya River (northern Yakutia, Fig. 1), Ivan Khristenko of the village of Andryushkino found skeletal remains of

Holocene vegetation changes and anthropogenic influence in the forest-steppe zone of the Southern Trans-Urals based on pollen and plant macrofossil records from the Sukharysh cave

Pollen and plant macrofossil records from the Sukharysh cave located in the southern forest-steppe zone of the Southern Trans-Urals provide material for reconstruction of palaeoenvironments. The obtained results reveal that within this territory in the Early Holocene before the Atlantic there was a forest-steppe zone with forbs and Artemisia communities and birch woodland stands. Anthropogenic influence on vegetation was insignificant at that time. In the Late Subatlantic, ruderal communities, cultivated land and pastures were widely spread across the forest-steppe landscapes. Active development of agriculture by the Southern Trans-Urals population started after the Russians had occupied this territory in the 17–18th centuries a.d.

The first reconstruction of the late glacial plant communities on the Yamal Peninsula based on plant macrofossils.

Strong climatic fluctuations during the Late Glacial stages of the Late Pleistocene, which resulted intransformation of vegetation in northern Eurasia, havebeen characterized in detail on the basis of numerouspaleobotanic data [1–3]. At this time, there were twointerstadial periods of warming—Bolling (12400–12000 radiocarbon years ago) and Allerod (11800–10900 radiocarbon years ago)—when the most pronounced climatic changes occurred, accompanied byexpansion of woody vegetation to the subarctic areas ofEurasia [4–6]. The time interval from 12400 to10900 years ago was often regarded as an interstadialBolling–Allerod complex interrupted by a minorshortterm cooling of the Older Dryas (12000–11800 radiocarbon years ago), which preceded a significant and strong cooling of the Younger Dryas(10900–10200 radiocarbon years ago) [2, 7, 8].Despite the extensive paleobotanic material thatcharacterizes the Late Glacial stages of the vegetationgrowth in the subarctic areas of Russian Arctic [4, 5, 9],only separate reports [10, 11] concerning the reconstructions of the Late Glacial paleovegetation in theareas north of Western Siberia are available. In thispaper, we describe the first dated complexes of plantmacrofossils from the alluvial deposits of the YuribeyRiver valley. They served as the basis for reconstructionof the plant community of the Yamal Peninsula duringinterstadial Bolling–Allerod warming.The Ngoyun crosssection lies on the west bank ofan unnamed lake 0.5 km northeast of Lake Ngoyun,on the left bank of the Yuribey River, upstream themeridional flow on the Yamal Peninsula (68°32′ N,72°06′ E) [12]. According to geobotanical zoning, theYuribey River valley lies currently in a subzone ofsouthern shrub tundra [13]. This territory is mostlyrepresented by ledum–small shrub–lichen–moss(moss–lichen) grumous, spotted grumous, and sometimes polygonal tundras. On the convex relief, there isthe shrubspotted grumous and polygonal tundras.The following plants form the basis of the herb–shrublayer of tundra: