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Radiocarbon Constraints on the Age of the World’s Highest-Elevation Cave-Bear Population, Conturines Cave (Dolomites, Northern Italy)
- Source :
- Radiocarbon. 60:299-307
- Publication Year :
- 2017
- Publisher :
- Cambridge University Press (CUP), 2017.
-
Abstract
- We report radiocarbon (14C) dates on bone samples of Ursus ladinicus, a small cave bear species well adapted to a life in the mountains, whose remains were found in Conturines Cave. Located at 2775 m asl in the Dolomites of northern Italy, this cave is by far the highest known cave bear site worldwide. Eleven 14C dates obtained by the Belfast and Oxford laboratories on samples showing good collagen preservation yielded consistent ages in excess of 46–50 ka BP. These results show that contrary to the previously held view these cave bear remains are older than Marine Isotope Stage 3, and likely date from a warm climate period with a high treeline, possibly the Last Interglacial.
- Subjects :
- Marine isotope stage
010506 paleontology
Archeology
geography
education.field_of_study
geography.geographical_feature_category
biology
Population
010502 geochemistry & geophysics
biology.organism_classification
01 natural sciences
Archaeology
law.invention
Cave
law
Interglacial
Paleoclimatology
Cave bear
General Earth and Planetary Sciences
Radiocarbon dating
Ursus
education
Geology
0105 earth and related environmental sciences
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 19455755 and 00338222
- Volume :
- 60
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Radiocarbon
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi...........9e98cf1a53ee433c822d483e8f123dd5
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1017/rdc.2017.60