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Południowa Cave is a locality that has been known for more than 500 years. It was found during quarrying and destroyed in the 1970s. However, despite such a long period of knowledge about this site and its widespread recognition, only a limited information of vertebrate fossils from this cave was published so far. Here we present for the first time the data on the presence of at least two different faunal palaeoassemblages in Południowa Cave. The oldest faunal elements are represented by Baranogale helbingi and Mustela pliocaenica, together with the rodent Baranomys loczyi, the only Pliocene find in the Sudety Mts. The second assemblage is dated back to the early Middle Pleistocene and comprises Gulo gulo schlosseri, Meles meles atavus, Martes vetus, Mustela strandi, Mustela palerminea, and Mustela praenivalis. In the context of the Middle Pleistocene faunal turnovers, Południowa Cave provides valuable data from the Sudety Mts. This site located on the intersection of migration routes between Eastern and Western Europe allow understanding dynamic changes in the fauna of European mustelids.

ABSTRACTThe Pleistocene history of the leopard (Panthera pardus) in Europe has been documented by the material obtained from 312 localities, with the last dated ∼1.1 Myr. The relatively small and gracile form of the leopard was very rare during the late Early and Middle Pleistocene. Only after the disappearance of the jaguar (Panthera gombaszoegensis) did P. pardusspread widely in Europe, increasing in size and ecologically substituting P. gombaszoegensis. The number of late Middle Pleistocene localities with leopard remains, younger than 300 kyr, increased considerably. The leopard reached the maximum extension of its geographical range in the Late Pleistocene. The Iberian Peninsula was the last European refuge for this cat. Six sites, the Naciekowa, Obok Wschodniej, Radochowska, and Wschodnia Caves from the Sudety Mountains and the Biśnik and Dziadowa Skała Caves from the Kraków-Częstochowa Upland, have documented the presence of the leopard in Poland between MIS 10/9 and MIS 3. These records are from rocky regions with rugged terrain and are located in the territory of Silesia (southern Poland). A newly obtained radiocarbon date (43–42 kyr) from the Radochowska Cave directly confirms the occurrence of P. pardusin the Sudety Mountains in the middle part of MIS 3.

ABSTRACTDuring the Late Pleistocene (MIS 5e-2), the brown bear Ursus arctoswas widespread in the Czech Republic. From this time interval, the species was recorded in 51 Czech localities, including 10 open-air and 41 cave sites. A total of 18 radiocarbon dates obtained from the material showed the presence of the species in this territory 46–12.6 kyr ago during the Late Pleistocene, but most of the dates are concentrated between 45.7 and 29.3 kyr. Later, its occurrence continued into the Holocene. Three dates confirmed the presence of U. arctosjust before and during the LGM. However, during the coolest part of the GS-2.1b interval (about 20.9–19.0 kyr), the species was not recorded in the territory of the Czech Republic. A large, broad-toothed, highly carnivorous priscus ecomorph adapted to live in open grasslands occurred during the Late Pleistocene, while the arctos ecomorph was rarely recorded from that period. The post-LGM time (17.5–14.7 kyr) was characterised by increasing numbers of brown bear dates on the territory of the Czech Republic. It was also a period of progressive afforestation and the disappearance of the priscus ecomorph. The latest occurrence of the priscus ecomorph in the territory of the Czech Republic was represented by a robust mandible from the Býčí skála Cave, dated at 15.4–14.9 kyr.