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The 13 C and 15 N isotope contents in collagen were determined in bones of the small cave bear Ursus (Spelaearctos) rossicus Borissiak, 1930 from three regions of Western Siberia. The bones dated back to marine isotope stage (MIS) 3 and belonged to mature males and females. Some of the samples differed only in δ 15 N. Bears of all samples were from the same trophic level. Trophic shifts were observed between females and males in one region and between males of two regions. The small cave bear of Western Siberia differed from the small cave bear of the Southern Urals in leading a much more predatory lifestyle. The extent of differences between the Ural and Siberian bears corresponded to different trophic levels., (© 2023. Pleiades Publishing, Ltd.)

The grey wolf (Canis lupus) was the first species to give rise to a domestic population, and they remained widespread throughout the last Ice Age when many other large mammal species went extinct. Little is known, however, about the history and possible extinction of past wolf populations or when and where the wolf progenitors of the present-day dog lineage (Canis familiaris) lived 1-8 . Here we analysed 72 ancient wolf genomes spanning the last 100,000 years from Europe, Siberia and North America. We found that wolf populations were highly connected throughout the Late Pleistocene, with levels of differentiation an order of magnitude lower than they are today. This population connectivity allowed us to detect natural selection across the time series, including rapid fixation of mutations in the gene IFT88 40,000-30,000 years ago. We show that dogs are overall more closely related to ancient wolves from eastern Eurasia than to those from western Eurasia, suggesting a domestication process in the east. However, we also found that dogs in the Near East and Africa derive up to half of their ancestry from a distinct population related to modern southwest Eurasian wolves, reflecting either an independent domestication process or admixture from local wolves. None of the analysed ancient wolf genomes is a direct match for either of these dog ancestries, meaning that the exact progenitor populations remain to be located., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

Dogs have been essential to life in the Siberian Arctic for over 9,500 y, and this tight link between people and dogs continues in Siberian communities. Although Arctic Siberian groups such as the Nenets received limited gene flow from neighboring groups, archaeological evidence suggests that metallurgy and new subsistence strategies emerged in Northwest Siberia around 2,000 y ago. It is unclear if the Siberian Arctic dog population was as continuous as the people of the region or if instead admixture occurred, possibly in relation to the influx of material culture from other parts of Eurasia. To address this question, we sequenced and analyzed the genomes of 20 ancient and historical Siberian and Eurasian Steppe dogs. Our analyses indicate that while Siberian dogs were genetically homogenous between 9,500 to 7,000 y ago, later introduction of dogs from the Eurasian Steppe and Europe led to substantial admixture. This is clearly the case in the Iamal-Nenets region (Northwestern Siberia) where dogs from the Iron Age period (∼2,000 y ago) possess substantially less ancestry related to European and Steppe dogs than dogs from the medieval period (∼1,000 y ago). Combined with findings of nonlocal materials recovered from these archaeological sites, including glass beads and metal items, these results indicate that Northwest Siberian communities were connected to a larger trade network through which they acquired genetically distinctive dogs from other regions. These exchanges were part of a series of major societal changes, including the rise of large-scale reindeer pastoralism ∼800 y ago., Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing interest., (Copyright © 2021 the Author(s). Published by PNAS.)

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.

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.