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A stag-moose Cervalces sp. (Cervidae) skull with antler beams of substantially different lengths has been analyzed. This skull was found in the lower reaches of the Yana River along with the lower jaw and four vertebrae. Its geological age has been assigned to the range from the very end of Eopleistocene to the first half of the early Neopleistocene. The unequal lengths of the beams in the individual analyzed was reproduced during each antler regeneration throughout the animal’s life. This may be indicative of the genetic nature of the phenomenon, even though a nongenetic cause of this disproportion is also possible, as many field observations and experimental data demonstrated frequent asymmetric disturbances in antler growth in modern deer due to injuries, especially forelimb injuries. If the genetic hypothesis is true, such an anomaly may be a manifestation of intensive form genesis, a putative adaptive reaction to the first substantial cooling of the climate in the Pleistocene. Antler beam proportions are the most valuable criterion for species and subspecies taxonomy and diagnosis of fossil moose. The case described by us does not render this trait useless, since the case is exceptionally rare. However, this genetic anomaly may be indicative of an increase in evolutionary trait variability during periods of significant climate change, which should be borne in mind when the morphology of animals that lived during such epochs is interpreted.

Detailed lithologic, stratigraphic and structural studies of fold-thrust structures were conducted on the island New Siberia. We have established, the jointly deformed complexes of the Upper CretaceousMiddle Neopleistocene are overlapped by undeformed sediments of the Upper Neopleistocene. This fact confirms the completion of the deformation process at the end of the Middle Neopleistocene. An additional argument excluding the ancient age of dislocations is the result of the fission track dating for apatites. The resulting track ages of apatites significantly exceeded the age of deformed rocks, which was reliably established by the other methods. In deformed complexes, unlithified permafrost rocks predominate. Folded structures are characterized by joint deformation of sedimentary rocks, formation ice and ice-ground, inconsistency of fold orientation and different direction of structural evolution in the northern and southern parts of the island New Siberia. Considering the correspondence of the established age of dislocations to the age of the largest Pleistocene glaciation, all these facts allow us to state that the fold-thrust deformations of the island New Siberia are glaciodislocations.

Detailed lithological, stratigraphic, and structural studies of the fold-thrust structures were conducted on New Siberia Island. We have established that the jointly deformed complexes of the Upper Cretaceous–Middle Neopleistocene are overlapped by undeformed sediments of the Upper Neopleistocene. This fact confirms the completion of the deformation process at the end of the Middle Neopleistocene. An additional argument excluding the ancient age of dislocations is the result of the fission track dating for apatites. The resulting track ages of apatites significantly exceeded the age of deformed rocks, which was reliably established by the other methods. In deformed complexes, unlithified permafrost rocks predominate. Folded structures are characterized by joint deformation of sedimentary rocks, formation ice and ice-ground, inconsistency of fold orientation and different direction of structural evolution in the northern and southern parts of the island New Siberia. Considering the correspondence of the established age of dislocations to the age of the largest Pleistocene glaciation, all these facts allow us to state that the fold-and-thrust deformations of the island New Siberia are glaciodislocations.

A new collection of plant fossils from the Derevyannye Gory Formation of the New Siberia Island collected in 2016 was studied. Thirty species of fossil plants attributed to liverworts, ferns, ginkgoaleans, conifers, and angiosperms were identified and illustrated; 16 of these species were not previously encountered among the New Siberian flora. A new angiosperm species Dalembia (?) gracilis Herman was described. New Siberian flora is characterized by a moderately rich systematic composition, by the predominance of conifers and angiosperms, by the dominance of the large-leaved platanoids and the species of the genus Trochodendroides among angiosperms, by the predominance of dentate-margined angiosperms, by the rarity of entire-margined forms, and by the total absence of cycadaleans and bennettitaleans. The age of the New Siberian flora corresponds to the Turonian–Coniacian interval; most likely, the flora should be dated to the Turonian. Plants of the New Siberian flora experienced a warm-temperate humid climate with warm summer, mild frost-free winter, and insignificant seasonality in precipitation.

Domestication of horses fundamentally transformed long-range mobility and warfare. However, modern domesticated breeds do not descend from the earliest domestic horse lineage associated with archaeological evidence of bridling, milking and corralling at Botai, Central Asia around 3500 bc3. Other longstanding candidate regions for horse domestication, such as Iberia and Anatolia, have also recently been challenged. Thus, the genetic, geographic and temporal origins of modern domestic horses have remained unknown. Here we pinpoint the Western Eurasian steppes, especially the lower Volga-Don region, as the homeland of modern domestic horses. Furthermore, we map the population changes accompanying domestication from 273 ancient horse genomes. This reveals that modern domestic horses ultimately replaced almost all other local populations as they expanded rapidly across Eurasia from about 2000 bc, synchronously with equestrian material culture, including Sintashta spoke-wheeled chariots. We find that equestrianism involved strong selection for critical locomotor and behavioural adaptations at the GSDMC and ZFPM1 genes. Our results reject the commonly held association between horseback riding and the massive expansion of Yamnaya steppe pastoralists into Europe around 3000 bc driving the spread of Indo-European languages. This contrasts with the scenario in Asia where Indo-Iranian languages, chariots and horses spread together, following the early second millennium bc Sintashta culture., The work by G. Boeskorov is done on state assignment of DPMGI SB RAS. This project was supported by the University Paul Sabatier IDEX Chaire d’Excellence (OURASI); Villum Funden miGENEPI research programme; the CNRS ‘Programme de Recherche Conjoint’ (PRC); the CNRS International Research Project (IRP AMADEUS); the France Génomique Appel à Grand Projet (ANR-10-INBS-09-08, BUCEPHALE project); IB10131 and IB18060, both funded by Junta de Extremadura (Spain) and European Regional Development Fund; Czech Academy of Sciences (RVO:67985912); the Zoological Institute ZIN RAS (АААА-А19-119032590102-7); and King Saud University Researchers Supporting Project (NSRSP–2020/2). The research was carried out with the financial support of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (19-59-15001 and 20-04-00213), the Russian Science Foundation (16-18-10265, 20-78-10151, and 21-18-00457), the Government of the Russian Federation (FENU-2020-0021), the Estonian Research Council (PRG29), the Estonian Ministry of Education and Research (PRG1209), the Hungarian Scientific Research Fund (Project NF 104792), the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (Momentum Mobility Research Project of the Institute of Archaeology, Research Centre for the Humanities); and the Polish National Science Centre (2013/11/B/HS3/03822). This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie (grant agreement 797449). This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreements 681605, 716732 and 834616).

To estimate the age of the glaciation in the New Siberian Islands, fossils of small mammals from the Sana-Balagan site (Faddeevsky Island, Russian Eastern Arctic) have been studied. The evolutionary degree of this fauna, which indicates the age of the sediments underlying the glacial deposits, suggests that the glaciation of the New Siberian Islands began no earlier than 190–210 thousand years ago. The new biochronological data in combination with 230Th/234U dates show that the geological event in question was synchronous with the Moscow glaciation or the Moscow stage of the Dnieper glaciation (the Vychegda glaciation, the final stage of the Saalian, the final stage of the Riss, the end of the MIS 6, 180–140 thousand years ago).

In recent years, new accumulations of mammoth faunal remains have been discovered in the northern part of the Yana-Indighirka lowland. Such areas are referred to as “mammoth graveyards” since the discovery of the Berelekh complex of geoarchaeological locales. It's been determined that all of these locales contain various amounts of evidence of past human activity associated with the use of bone accumulations as a valuable raw material source (mammoth ivory). These locales indicate that humans were widely spread in Arctic Siberia during the Late Pleistocene (MIS 3 and 2). At least some of these sites could have formed as a result of ancient people hunting mammoths. In this article we discuss two newly discovered sites, which currently represent the northernmost evidence of human presence in the Arctic at the end of the Pleistocene. They were found in the Maksunuokha River valley, to the south of the Shirokostan Peninsula. The Urez-22 site (MKR/U22) is located at 71°42′ N and is currently the northernmost Paleolithic site in the world. The Lake Nikita site (NKL) is situated 40 km away from Urez-22, and both sites contain numerous remains of mammoth. The NKL site material represents the earlier of the two ancient human habitation episodes. This site's age is estimated at ∼13,800 to 13,600 years ago. The NKL site is a complete chronological and cultural “duplicate” of the Berelekh site, which points to a relatively wide spread of this culture in Northeast Asia. New World implements, similar to those found at the Berelekh site and NKL, are known as the Chindadn points. At this point, they represent the only tangible evidence of the cultural connection between the materials from Northeast Asia and Northwest North America. The age of Urez-22 can be estimated at the time slice of ∼14,900 to 13,900 years ago. Archaeological material was encountered in redeposited concentrations, created by a low-energy stream. Artifacts from Urez-22 demonstrate the spread of microblade industry, older than the early Holocene, for the first time in the Siberian Arctic. This new material indicates noticeable cultural originality of the region during the Late Paleolithic and promises success in the future search for Paleolithic sites in the Yana-Indighirka lowland.

Major and trace element composition of the Upper Cenozoic deposits of the Chuya section (the lower reaches of the Aldan River, Central Yakutia) made up of the Middle Miocene and Neopleistocene sediments was studied as indicator of paleoclimatic conditions. It was established that primary sediments were precipitated under moderately humid conditions in the Middle Miocene and under subarid climatic conditions at relatively high sedimentation rates in the Neopleistocene. Close contents of trace elements in all lithologies suggest that the source area remained constant. Variation trends of ICV index indicate an increasing role of fluvioglacial accumulation during formation of Pleistocene beds. It was determined that the Neopleistocene is marked by a sharp change in sedimentation conditions.

To clarify unanswered questions of site formation, geology and the archaeology of the Berelekh geoarchaeological complex, a special survey was undertaken in 2009 of the area surrounding the site. Several geological units have been revealed. By establishing the spatial and temporal relationship of these deposits—as well as their age—we have reconstructed the formation history of the Berelekh bone bed. The mammoth bone deposit belongs to a paleochannel. Radiocarbon dating of mammoth remains at Berelekh demonstrates rapid accumulation during the Bolling warming. Human involvement in its formation is, at best, questionable, since there is no real overlap between the radiocarbon dates associated with past human activity, and those of the mammoth bone bed. This study confirms that humans used mammoth bone remains after the bone bed was deposited. Culturally, the Berelekh “site” does not have any relationship to the so-called “Dyuktai culture.” Instead, the Berelekh archaeological finds (side notched stone pendants) show certain similarities to non-microblade terminal Pleistocene assemblages found from Yenisei to Kamchatka. Additionally, the Berelekh complex presents a clear analogy with lithics found in Eastern Beringia. Teardrop-shaped incomplete bifaces found in the assemblage are comparable to the Chindadn points of Alaska. The nature of this “Chindadn connection” is intriguing but it is the only visible cultural link between Western and Eastern Beringia.

In 2001, the Yana RHS archaeological site was discovered in the lower Yana river valley, Arctic Siberia. Its radiocarbon age is about 28 000 BP. While enormous amount of Pleistocene mammal bones was excavated from the site, the mammoth bones occurred at an unexpectedly low frequency. That was interpreted as an indication of the limited role of mammoths in the subsistence economy of the Pleistocene Yana people. In 2008, next to the excavation local ivory miners opened a mass accumulation of mammoth accompanied by the artifacts. About one thousand mammoth bones from at least 26 individuals, and few wooly rhinoceros, bison, horse, reindeer, and bear bones have been unearthed there. Stratigraphy and radiocarbon dating provide evidence for cultural layer of Yana RHS and the mass accumulation of mammoth to be coeval. The geology and taphonomy of Yana mass accumulation of mammoth indicate its anthropogenic nature. Discovery of the anthropogenic mass accumulation of mammoth next to the Yana site suggests a greater role of mammoth in the subsistence practices of the Pleistocene Yana people than previously thought.

The little known Achchagyi–Allaikha mass assemblage of mammoths and the well-known Berelyokh site (Lower Indigirka River, Arctic Siberia) were studied. Detailed study of the Achchagyi–Allaikha site provided ample data concerning its geology, stratigraphy, taphonomy, and the gender-age structure of the taphocoenosis. The Achchagyi–Allaikha assemblage included redeposited bones from numerous young (not less than 21) and some adult female mammoths, with limited quantities of Bison, Equus and Rangifer bones. Collagen from mammoth bones preserved at the Achchagyi–Allaikha site ( n = 6) was radiocarbon-dated at 12,490 ± 80 to 12,400 ± 60 BP. At the Berelyokh site, eight mammoth bones were radiocarbon-dated at 12,720 ± 100 to 11,900 ± 50 BP, one bison bone was dated at 12,380 ± 150 BP, and one mammoth bone dated at 36,500 ± 1000 (redeposited bone included in younger sediments). The mass accumulations are synchronous and are similar in their mode of formation. The assemblage of mammoths in the Achchagyi–Allaikha and Berelyokh sites resulted from simultaneous deaths of a large number of animals (probably herd-family groups) in one or several seasons. It is very probable that the deposits in both cases were not of cultural origin. The formation of the burials is a direct consequence of short but strong climatic warming (Bolling Oscillation) that resulted in many unfavorable environmental conditions. Among these, the increase of snow cover and stronger spring floods were very notable. Bolling warming is a model of the large-scale Holocene event. Mass death of mammoths during the Bolling phase was a prelude to their final extinction.

A new method of permafrost dating with the cosmogenic radionuclide 36 Cl is presented. In the first application, syngenetic ice wedges are dated using the ratio of 36 Cl and Cl concentrations in ice as the signal. 36 Cl is produced in the atmosphere by nuclear reactions of cosmic rays on argon. Stable chlorine enters the atmosphere from the oceans. Their ratio does not depend on chloride concentration in precipitations and on sublimation of snow. In situ production of 36 Cl in permafrost ice via cosmic ray-induced reactions and neutron capture are calculated and the dating age limit is estimated as 3 million years. 36 Cl/Cl ratios in permafrost samples from cape Svyatoy Nos (Laptev Sea coast), North-Eastern Siberia, are measured by accelerator mass spectrometry. Analysis of the first results and the calculated dates support the feasibility of the 36 Cl permafrost dating method

Study of glacial and marine sequences along the outer coast of Chukotka Peninsula, Bering Strait, is the basis for major revisions of the regional stratigraphy. The Val’katlen Suite at its type section at the mouth of the Enmelen River records the youngest high sea stand of the last interglaciation on Chukotka Peninsula. Marine deposits and glacial diamicton stratigraphically below the type section record, respectfully, the peak of the last interglacial (marine oxygen-isotope substage 5e) and rapid glacierization of the coastal mountains probably during substage 5d or 5b. Correlative deposits recording a similar sequence of intra-stage 5 events, but once thought to be of early and middle Pleistocene age, include the Upper and Lower Pinakul’ Suite at Cape Pinakul’ and marine deposits near the Nunyamo River on the Gulf of Anadyr, based upon amino-acid analyses, biostratigraphy, and supporting geochronology. These deposits enclose warmer-than-present faunas and floras comparible to last interglacial Pelukian marine deposits found along the coast of Alaska. The last major advance of glacial ice from Chukotka Peninsula across Anadyr Strait and onto St. Lawrence Island was likely initiated during the later part of stage 5 based on our reinterpretaion of the stratigraphy at Cape Pinakul’, near the Nunyamo River, and on northwestern St. Lawrence Island. Chukotkan ice probably reached St. Lawrence Island sometime during oxygen-isotope stage 4. Ice extend across Chukotka during the LGM was very imited.

A newly discovered Paleolithic site on the Yana River, Siberia, at 71°N, lies well above the Arctic circle and dates to 27,000 radiocarbon years before present, during glacial times. This age is twice that of other known human occupations in any Arctic region. Artifacts at the site include a rare rhinoceros foreshaft, other mammoth foreshafts, and a wide variety of tools and flakes. This site shows that people adapted to this harsh, high-latitude, Late Pleistocene environment much earlier than previously thought.