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- Title
Upper Pleistocene Avifauna from the Adzhi-Koba Cave in the Crimean Mountains.
- Authors
Tsvelykh, A. N.
- Abstract
A collection of bird bone remains from the Upper Pleistocene sediments of the Adzhi-Koba cave, located at the northwestern cliff of the Karabi Plateau in the eastern part of the Crimean Mountains, has been revised. The resulting data were combined with the published results of analysis of another collection from the same burial. These remains apparently accumulated as a result of the activity of eagle-owls that periodically settled in the cave. The avifauna of the locality near this cave includes 64 species. One-third of these species are waterfowl and wading birds. These water birds must have been attracted by a temporary reservoir of karst origin, which is still present on the plateau. Bone remains of these birds (representatives of the family Tetraonidae: Lagopus lagopus, Lagopus muta, and Lyrurus tetrix) are abundant in the Upper Late Palaeolithic layers, but absent in the Lower and Middle Palaeolithic ones, which indicates that the reservoir appeared on the plateau not earlier than in the Late Paleolithic. Analysis of the species composition of birds indicates that they might have entered the burial site mainly during the warm seasons of the year and migration periods. A significant proportion of species characteristic of open habitat areas shows that vast open spaces presumably existed on the plateau in the Late Pleistocene. Comparison of the ratios of the amount of bone remains of Galliformes from the Late Paleolithic layers of Adzhi-Koba to those at the Late Paleolithic Syuren I locality in the western part of Crimean Mountains, shows a significantly higher abundance of grey partridge Perdix perdix, a species of open habitats, than that of black grouse Lyrurus tetrix, an indicator of tree and shrub thickets, in the former locality vs. the latter. This may imply that tree and shrub thickets might occupy significant areas in the Syuren I area, in contrast to Adzhi-Koba.
- Subjects
BLACK grouse; WATER birds; PLEISTOCENE Epoch; MIDDLE Paleolithic Period; GROUSE; CAVES; TUNDRAS
- Publication
Biology Bulletin, 2022, Vol 49, Issue 9, p1669
- ISSN
1062-3590
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1134/S1062359022090345