Emine-Bair-Khosar Cave in the Crimea, a huge bone accumulation of Late Pleistocene fauna
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Date
2013Author
Ridush, Bogdan
Stefaniak, Krzysztof
Socha, Pawel
Proskurnyak, Yuriy
Marciszak, Adrian
Vremir, Matyas
Nadachowski, Adam
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The Crimean Mountains are well known for the abundance of Middle and Late Palaeolithic sites and
palaeontological remains recovered from cultural layers in caves and rock shelters. The fossil-bearing
deposits of Emine-Bair-Khosar Cave, located at the elevation of 1000 m on the Chatyrdag Plateau,
yielded very diverse and numerous vertebrate remains that widen the knowledge of Late Pleistocene
faunal diversity in the Crimea. The assemblage comprised in total almost 50 species of vertebrates.
Studies included geomorphological, geological and stratigraphic analyses as well AMS 14C dating. Faunal
remains were present in ten palaeontological sites. The main bone accumulation (section Ba2) was
deposited during Middle Valdai or Vytachiv (MIS 3) interstadial, and including a long time gap, to the end
of the Pleistocene and the Holocene. Comparison of the Emine-Bair-Khosar fauna with vertebrate faunas
of other Crimean sites showed remarkable stability in the faunal composition and frequency during the
whole MIS 3 interstadial. Steppe and other open-country species dominated in the compared assemblages,
while boreal-tundra species were far less numerous. Inhabitants of forests, including red deer and
some rodents, were stable members of fossil assemblages.