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The Tip-Tugai Cave (52°59'28.6″ N, 57°00'22.3″ E) is described as a new site with cave hyena Crocuta spelaea fossils. The bone-bearing layer was dated to marine isotope stage (MIS) 3 based on the species composition of the fauna of large and small mammals. Finds of abundant remains of cave hyenas of different ages and bones of large herbivores with hyena gnaw marks indicated that the Tip-Tugai Cave was used as a hyena den in the Late Pleistocene. This is the first cave hyena den described in the Urals., (© 2024. Pleiades Publishing, Ltd.)

Analysis of mammalian species composition has been performed for eight archaeological sites on the Ustyurt plateau. They date to the range from the middle Subboreal to the middle Subatlantic. The modern species composition of large mammals formed by the end of the Middle Holocene (Subboreal 2) and did not change until the early 20th century. The ungulate species composition and ratio on the plateau showed geographical variation and changed over time. Boars were always rare or absent in the north of Ustyurt. The structure of the ungulate fauna in the north of Ustyurt changed over time. Onager numbers in this area increased and saiga numbers decreased in the middle of the Late Holocene. Significant geographical differences in the structure of ungulate fauna were recorded in the middle of the Late Holocene. The numbers of onagers, goitered gazelles, and argali were higher, whereas the numbers of saigas were lower in the south of Ustyurt than in the north.

Enamel macro- and microstructure has been studied in the teeth of Merck's rhinoceros (Stephanorhinus kirchbergensis Jäger, 1839), woolly rhinoceros (Coelodonta antiquitatis Blumenbach, 1799), and rhinoceroses from the Tetyukhinskaya (44°35' N, 135°36' E) and Sukhaya (43°09' N, 131°28' E) caves in southern Primorye. The teeth from the caves were identified as the teeth of Merck's rhinoceros. Radiocarbon dating and accompanying animal species enabled the dating of Merck's rhinoceros remains to the Late Pleistocene (marine isotope stages 5-2). These finds mark the extreme eastern boundary of the Merck's rhinoceros species range in the Late Pleistocene. The living range reached the Pacific Ocean coast during a certain time interval within this epoch. This was due to the abundance of tree and shrub vegetation in the area during the Late Pleistocene.

The vertebrate fauna from the cave deposits in Imanai Cave in the Southern Urals (53°02' N, 56°26'E) has been studied. It contains 715 bones that belonged to at least 11 individuals of fossil lion (Panthera (Leo) ex gr. fossilis-spelaea). It has been established that this is one of the largest Eurasian burial sites of fossil lions. The bones were accumulated due to the natural death of animals inside the cave. The age and sex estimations have shown that at least six adult males and five adult females died there. According to the accompanying fauna, radiocarbon, geochemical, and mineralogical analyses and archaeological finds, the interval of the lion bone accumulation is determined as the first half to middle of Late Pleistocene (OIS 5-3).

The study deals with a new sample of the mammalian fossils from the Pleistocene deposits of the Ignatievskaya Cave in Southern Urals (54°53' N, 57°46' E). Among the rodent fossils, the teeth of red squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris) and forest dormouse (Dryomys nitedula) have been identified. The enamel differentiation quotient (SDQ) of the water vole teeth matches the Arvicola terrestris species from locations of the end of Middle and Late Pleistocene (oxygen isotope stages, OIS 6 and OIS 5-2, respectively). The high SDQ value for the water vole and the presence of the squirrel and dormouse in the fauna allow dating the finding near the end of the Middle Pleistocene and beginning of the Late Pleistocene (OIS 6 and OIS 5e, respectively). The widespread open and forest landscapes were inhabited by this fauna.

Morphotypic and morphometric analyses of the M2 tooth found in the Late Pleistocene deposits of the Ignatievskaya Cave (southern Urals) demonstrate that this tooth belongs to the dhole (Cuon alpinus Pallas, 1811). This is the first reliable evidence for the presence of the dhole in the Urals. Radiocarbon dating and associated theriofauna allow the tooth to be dated to the first half of the late Neopleistocene or, more precisely, to marine isotope stages (MISs) 3 and 4.

We present the high-quality genome sequence of a ∼45,000-year-old modern human male from Siberia. This individual derives from a population that lived before-or simultaneously with-the separation of the populations in western and eastern Eurasia and carries a similar amount of Neanderthal ancestry as present-day Eurasians. However, the genomic segments of Neanderthal ancestry are substantially longer than those observed in present-day individuals, indicating that Neanderthal gene flow into the ancestors of this individual occurred 7,000-13,000 years before he lived. We estimate an autosomal mutation rate of 0.4 × 10(-9) to 0.6 × 10(-9) per site per year, a Y chromosomal mutation rate of 0.7 × 10(-9) to 0.9 × 10(-9) per site per year based on the additional substitutions that have occurred in present-day non-Africans compared to this genome, and a mitochondrial mutation rate of 1.8 × 10(-8) to 3.2 × 10(-8) per site per year based on the age of the bone.

The extinction of the many well-known large mammals (megafauna) of the Late Pleistocene epoch has usually been attributed to 'overkill' by human hunters, climatic/vegetational changes or to a combination of both. An accurate knowledge of the geography and chronology of these extinctions is crucial for testing these hypotheses. Previous assumptions that the megafauna of northern Eurasia had disappeared by the Pleistocene/Holocene transition were first challenged a decade ago by the discovery that the latest woolly mammoths on Wrangel Island, northeastern Siberia, were contemporaneous with ancient Egyptian civilization. Here we show that another spectacular megafaunal species, the giant deer or 'Irish elk', survived to around 6,900 radiocarbon yr bp (about 7,700 yr ago) in western Siberia-more than three millennia later than its previously accepted terminal date-and therefore, that the reasons for its ultimate demise are to be sought in Holocene not Pleistocene events. Before their extinction, both giant deer and woolly mammoth underwent dramatic shifts in distribution, driven largely by climatic/vegetational changes. Their differing responses reflect major differences in ecology.