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This article discusses the objectives of the Stone Age Man in Caves of the Tatra Mountains project, which aims to explain the mysterious absence of evidence for the Palaeolithic in the Tatra Mountains of Eastern Europe. We present preliminary work from Hučivá Cave, which demonstrates clear traces of Magdalenian settlement within this region.

New research at the Doroshivtsi site in Ukraine has provided data that allow fresh insights into a well-known and important Gravettian site in the Middle Dniester Valley.

The narrow-headed vole, collared lemming and common vole were the most abundant small mammal species across the Eurasian Late Pleistocene steppe-tundra environment. Previous ancient DNA studies of the collared lemming and common vole have revealed dynamic population histories shaped by climatic fluctuations. To investigate the extent to which species with similar adaptations share common evolutionary histories, we generated a dataset comprised the mitochondrial genomes of 139 ancient and 6 modern narrow-headed voles from several sites across Europe and northwestern Asia covering approximately the last 100 thousand years (kyr). We inferred Bayesian time-aware phylogenies using 11 radiocarbon-dated samples to calibrate the molecular clock. Divergence of the main mtDNA lineages across the three species occurred during marine isotope stages (MIS) 7 and MIS 5, suggesting a common response of species adapted to open habitat during interglacials. We identified several time-structured mtDNA lineages in European narrow-headed vole, suggesting lineage turnover. The timing of some of these turnovers was synchronous across the three species, allowing us to identify the main drivers of the Late Pleistocene dynamics of steppe- and cold-adapted species.

Aim Many species experienced population turnover and local extinction during the Late Pleistocene. In the case of megafauna, it remains challenging to disentangle climate change and the activities of Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers as the main cause. In contrast, the impact of humans on rodent populations is likely to be negligible. This study investigated which climatic and/or environmental factors affect the population dynamics of the common vole. This temperate rodent is widespread across Europe and was one of the most abundant small mammal species throughout the Late Pleistocene. Location Europe. Taxon Common vole (Microtus arvalis). Methods We generated a dataset comprised of 4.2 kb long fragment of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from 148 ancient and 51 modern specimens sampled from multiple localities across Europe and covering the last 60 thousand years (ka). We used Bayesian inference to reconstruct their phylogenetic relationships and to estimate the age of the specimens that were not directly dated. Results We estimated the time to the most recent common ancestor of all last glacial and extant common vole lineages to be 90 ka ago and the divergence of the main mtDNA lineages present in extant populations to between 55 and 40 ka ago, which is earlier than most previous estimates. We detected several lineage turnovers in Europe during the period of high climate variability at the end of Marine Isotope Stage 3 (MIS 3; 57-29 ka ago) in addition to those found previously around the Pleistocene/Holocene transition. In contrast, data from the Western Carpathians suggest continuity throughout the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) even at high latitudes. Main Conclusions The main factor affecting the common vole populations during the last glacial period was the decrease in open habitat during the interstadials, whereas climate deterioration during the LGM had little impact on population dynamics. This suggests that the rapid environmental change rather than other factors was the major force shaping the histories of the Late Pleistocene faunas. IT1602-22 CGL2011-30274 CGL2015-71255-P PCCF16/2016 126/2018 PCE2282/2020 RYC-2016-19386 31003A_176209 2017/25/B/NZ8/02005 2015/19/D/NZ8/03878 ESP1209403HFST-P info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

1AbstractAimThe common vole is a temperate rodent widespread across Europe. It was also one of the most abundant small mammal species throughout the Late Pleistocene. Phylogeographic studies of its extant populations suggested the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM, 26.5–19 ka ago) as one of the main drivers of the species’ population dynamics. However, analyses based solely on extant genetic diversity may not recover the full complexity of past population history. The main aim of this study was to investigate the evolutionary history and identify the main drivers of the common vole population dynamics during the Late Pleistocene.LocationEuropeTaxonCommon vole (Microtus arvalis)MethodsWe generated a dataset comprising 4.2 kb-long fragment of mitochondrial DNA from 148 ancient and 51 modern specimens sampled from multiple localities across Europe and covering the last 60 thousand years (ka). We used Bayesian inference to reconstruct their phylogenetic relationships and to estimate the age of specimens that were not directly dated.ResultsWe estimate the time to the most recent common ancestor of all Last Glacial and extant common vole lineages to 90 ka ago and the divergence of the main mtDNA lineages present in extant populations to between 55 and 40 ka ago, earlier than previous estimates. We find multiple lineage turnovers in Europe in the period of high climate variability at the end of Marine Isotope Stage 3 (MIS 3; 57–29 ka ago) in addition to those found previously around the Pleistocene/Holocene transition. Conversely, data from the Western Carpathians suggest continuity throughout the LGM even at high latitudes.Main conclusionsOur results suggest that the main factor affecting the common vole populations during the last glacial period was the reduction of open habitats during the interstadial periods while the climate deterioration during the LGM had little impact on species’ population dynamics.

Among the well-known small mammal assemblages of the Krakow-Czestochowa Upland, the one from Tunel Wielki Cave is one of the most interesting for the Pleistocene biochronology of Poland. As a new trench was opened in 2018, it was possible to reanalyse the entire sequence. Its complex stratigraphy is divided into two phases: the Holocene–Late Pleistocene series and the Middle Pleistocene. In this work, we present the study of a small mammal assemblage coming from this site, with a focus on the Middle Pleistocene material. The total assemblage was composed of 268 individuals divided into 43 taxa. In the Middle Pleistocene series, two oscillations, one mild and one cold, were detected. Among the determined taxa, some are crucial for defining the chronology of the lower part of the sequence. Arvicola mosbachensis was recorded, consisting of the first finding of this species in Poland. The presence of Pliomys coronensis was confirmed, as well as that of Pliomys episcopalis. The occurrence of Microtus cf. arvalis, Microtus cf. agrestis among rodents, Myotis bechsteinii cf. robustus, and Plecotus cf. abeli among bats, as well as the analyses of the morphological characters of the other species confirm that this part of the sequence can be related to the Middle Pleistocene, precisely to a moment between Marine Isotope Stages (MISs) 14 and 11, establishing Tunel Wielki Cave as the first Early Toringian site in Poland.

During the Early Pleistocene, two ground squirrel species, Spermophilus praecox (northern Black Sea area) and S. polonicus (Central Europe) coexisted in geographically well-separated ranges. Studie...

Grey voles (subgenus Microtus) represent a complex of at least seven closely related and partly cryptic species. The range of these species extends from the Atlantic to the Altai Mountains, but most of them occur east of the Black Sea. Using ancient DNA analyses of the Late Pleistocene specimens, we identified a new mtDNA lineage of grey voles in Europe. Phylogenetic analysis of mitochondrial DNA cytochrome b sequences from 23 voles from three caves, namely, Emine–Bair–Khosar (Crimea, Ukraine), Cave 16 (Bulgaria), and Bacho Kiro (Bulgaria), showed that 14 specimens form a previously unrecognized lineage, sister to the Tien Shan vole. The average sequence divergence of this lineage and the extant Tien Shan vole was 4.8%, which is similar to the divergence of grey vole forms, which are considered distinct species or being on the verge of speciation; M. arvalis and M. obscurus or M. mystacinus and M. rossiaemeridionalis. We estimated the time to the most recent common ancestor of the grey voles to be 0.66 Ma, which is over twice the recent estimates, while the divergence of the extant Tien Shan vole and the new lineage to be 0.29 Ma. Our discovery suggests that grey voles may have been more diversified in the past and that their ranges may have differed substantially from current ones. It also underlines the utility of ancient DNA to decipher the evolutionary history of voles.

There is a widespread belief that the abrupt warming at 14.7 ka had a profound impact on the environment. However, the direct correlation between the global climatic event and changes in local environments is not obvious. We examined faunal succession in an intra-mountain basin of the Western Carpathians to assess the potential influence of the climatic change between Greenland Stadial-2a and Greenland Interstadial-1e on the local environment. We investigated three vertebrate assemblages (total number of identified specimens = 18,745; minimum number of individuals = 7515; 138 taxa) from Obłazowa Cave (western entrance) and a Rock overhang in Cisowa Rock, radiocarbon dated to the period before and after the global warming, between ca. 17.0 and 14.0 ka. Our data revealed that the major abrupt warming that occurred 14.7 ka had little impact on the local environment, which could suggest that ecosystems in Central Europe were resilient to the abrupt global climate changes. The increase in fauna population sizes and species diversities in local biotopes was gradual and began long before the temperature increase. This was supported by the analysis of ancient DNA of Microtus arvalis, which showed a gradual increase in effective population size after 19.0 ka. The results of palaeoclimatic reconstruction pointed out that the compared sites were characterized by similar climatic conditions. According to our calculations, the differences in the annual mean temperatures did not exceed 0.5 °C and mean annual thermal amplitude changed from 22.9 to 22.4 °C. The environmental changes before 14.7 ka had no impact on the activity of Final Palaeolithic hunters in the studied area.

The harsh climatic conditions during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) period have been considered the cause of local extinctions and major faunal reorganizations that took place at the end of the Pleistocene. Recent studies have shown, however, that in addition many of these ecological events were associated with abrupt climate changes during the so-called Late Glacial and the Pleistocene/Holocene transition. Here we used ancient DNA to investigate the impact of those changes on common vole (Microtus arvalis) populations in Europe. The common vole is a temperate rodent species widespread in Europe. The genetic diversity of modern populations and the fossil record suggests that the species may have survived cold episodes, like LGM, not only in the traditional Mediterranean glacial refugia but also at higher latitudes in cryptic northern refugia located in Central France, the northern Alps as well as the Carpathians. However, the details of the post-glacial recolonization and the impact of the Late Glacial and Early Holocene climate changes on the evolutionary history of the common vole remains unclear. To address this issue, we analysed mtDNA cytochrome b sequences from more than one hundred common vole specimens from 36 paleontological and archaeological sites scattered across Europe. Our data suggest that populations from the European mid- and high latitudes suffered a local population extinction and contraction as a result of Late Glacial and Early Holocene climate and environmental changes. The recolonization of earlier abandoned areas took place in the Mid- to Late Holocene. In contrast, at low latitudes, in Northern Spain there was a continuity of common vole populations. This indicates different responses of common vole populations to climate and environmental changes across Europe and corroborates the hypothesis that abrupt changes, like those associated with Younger Dryas and the Pleistocene/Holocene transition, had a significant impact on populations at the mid- and high latitudes of Europe.

During the Late Pleistocene, narrow-headed voles (Lasiopodomys gregalis) inhabited Eurasia’s vast territories, frequently becoming the dominant small mammal species among steppe-tundra communities. We investigated the relationship between this species’ European and Asiatic populations by sequencing the mtDNA genomes of two extant specimens from Russia and 10 individuals from five Central European sites, dated to the post-LGM period. Phylogenetic analyses based on a large portion of mtDNA genomes highly supported the positioning of L. gregalis within Arvicolinae. The phylogeny based on mtDNA cytochrome b sequences revealed a deep divergence of European narrow-headed voles from Asiatic ones and their sister position against the extant L. gregalis and L. raddei. The divergence of the European lineage was estimated to a minimum 230 thousand years ago. This suggest, contrary to the current biogeographic hypotheses, that during the interglacial periods narrow-headed vole did not retreat from Europe but survived the unfavourable conditions within the refugial areas. Based on this result, we propose to establish a cryptic species status for the Late Pleistocene European narrow-headed vole and to name this taxon Lasiopodomys anglicus.

In order to explore temporal trends of morphological variation in the narrow-headed vole ( Microtus gregalis ) traditional morphometric methods were used to quantify enamel differentiation quotient (SDQ), tooth size (L) and tooth proportion (A/L) in over 800 first lower molars from two sites in Central Europe. Our results suggest that SDQ values in late Middle Pleistocene assemblages are significantly lower than those in Late Pleistocene populations. A greater chronostratigraphic variation in SDQ occurs across the Late Pleistocene compared to the late Middle Pleistocene. This probably indicates repeated extinctions and re-colonisations, most likely from Eastern Europe or Asia, during MIS 3 and MIS 2. However, it is unclear whether this pattern represents a local phenomenon or whether the SDQ changes took place across a large geographical scale. Further studies on fossil and recent populations of the species are necessary to identify the determinants of SDQ variation in Microtus gregalis and to confirm the usefulness of the index for the Pleistocene stratigraphy.

12 pages; International audience; The genus Dicrostonyx (the collared lemming) is undoubtedly the small mammal best adapted to the extreme conditions of the arctic environment. The Palearctic collared lemming has been described in numerous European Late Pleistocene localities up to south of France and Croatia. This species experienced climate-driven changes through time, changes mainly observed as repetitive pulses of pan-continental migration, and it thus became a typical indicator of glacial conditions. Using geometric morphometrics on molars, we evaluate the shape changes occurring during the last 100 ky over some dispersal events in Western Europe. The results point out that Dicrostonyx torquatus has a large intra-population variation with a homogenous morphology, regardless of the origin of the individuals. A temporal trend leading to a more complex tooth with a differentiated anterior loop on the first lower molar was observed. An additional effect of the distance from the core populations was also described with a more peculiar shape for the most western populations of France. These temporal and geographical trends might relate to the different migratory pulses documented from ancient DNA haplotypes.