Middle and Late Pleistocene terrestrial snails from the Middle Dniester area, Ukraine (based on Mykola Kunytsia’s collections)
Abstract
Extensive collections of land molluscs from the many sections of Middle and Late Pleistocene depo its in the region of the
Middle Dniester River were made by Professor Mykola Kunytsia (1925–2002). These collections, now at the Natural Museum, Yuriy Fedkovych Chernivtsi National University, were for the most part analysed, but remained partially un published.
M. Kunytsia used them for regional reconstructions of palaeolandscapes during various stages of the Pleistocene. In our
study, we used these collections to assess the land snail diversity in the region during consecutive stages of the Middle and
Late Pleistocene. Our analysis of faunas of cold and warm stages showed that the latter were more diverse. While all or most
of the cold stages had many spe cies in common, the faunas of the warm stages were more heterogeneous. Such a feature
may play an essential role in Quaternary biostratigraphy.