Finding of the Late Pleistocene carnivores in Taimyr Peninsula (Russia, Siberia) with paleoecological context

Baryshnikov G.F., Mol D., Tikhonov A.N.

P. 107-113

The fossil bone remains of wolf (Canis lupus) and brown bear (Ursus arctos) from the permafrost of the Taimyr Peninsula have been examined. By the dimensions of the skull, the Late Pleistocene C. lupus resembles recent wolves of the Eurasian tundra, but exceeds them in the zygomatic width and length of the tooth row as well as possesses wider premolars. These peculiarities of the cranial and dental morphology suggest the Late Pleistocene wolves from north Siberia to consume more carrion than the recent wolves. Fossil remains of U. arctos were found far to north of the modern limits of brown bear distributional range in Taimyr. The robust size provides the possibility to presume that the Late Pleistocene brown bears ate a lot of animal proteins. The abundance of the representatives of the megafauna (mammoth, rhino, bison, musk-ox, etc.) in the arctic zone of Siberia as well as the absence of specialized mammal scavengers (hyenas) led the wolf and brown bears to be, most probably, among the main consumers of the large carcasses.DOI: 10.15298/rusjtheriol.8.2.04

• Barnes I., Matheus P., Shapiro B., Jensen D. & Cooper A. 2002. Dynamics of Pleistocene population extinctions in Beringian brown bears // Science. Vol.295. P.2267-2270.
• Baryshnikov G. & Boeskorov G. 2005. Skull of the Pleistocene brown bear (Ursus arctos) from Yakutia, Russia // Russian Journal of Theriology. 2004. Vol.3. No.2. P.71-75.
• Chernyavskyi F.B. & Kretchmar M.A. 2001. [Brown Bear (Ursus arctos L.) on the North-East of Siberia]. Magadan, Institut Biologicheskykh Problem Severa. 93 p. [in Russian, with English summary].
• Driesch A. von den. 1976. A guide to the measurement of animal bones from archaeological sites // Peabody Museum Bulletin. No.1. P.1-136.
• Guthrie R.D. 1982. Mammals of the mammoth steppe as paleoenvironmental indicators // Hopkins D.M., Matthews J.V., Schweger C.E. & Young S.B. (eds.). Paleoecology of Beringia. New York, Academic Press. P.307-326.
• Guthrie R.D. 2001. Origin and causes of the mammoth steppe: a story of cloud cover, woolly mammoth tooth pits, buckles, and inside-out Beringia // Quaternary Sciences Reviews. Vol.20. No.1-3. P.549-574.
• Heptner V.G., Naumov N.P., Yurgenson P.B., Sludsky A.A., Chirkova A.F. & Bannikov A.G. 1967. [Mammals of Soviet Union. T.2. Part 1. Sea Cows and Carnivores]. Moskva, Vysshaya Shkola. 1004 p. [in Russian].
• Hilderbrand G.V., Schwartz C.C., Robbins C.T., Jacoby M.E., Hanley T.A., Arthur S.M. & Servheen C. 1999. The importance of meat, particularly salmon, to body size, population productivity, and conservation of North American brown bears // Canadian Journal of Zoology. Vol.77. No.1. P.132-138.
• Kurtén B. & Anderson E. 1980. Pleistocene Mammals of North America. New York, Columbia University Press. 443 p.
• Kuzmina I.E. & Sablin M.V. 1994. [Wolf (Canis lupus) from Upper Paleolithic sites of Kostenki in Don River] // Trudy Zoologicheskogo Instituta RAN. Vol.256. P.44-58 [in Russian].
• Leonard J.A., Vila C., Fox-Dobbs K., Koch P.L., Wayne R.K. & Van Valkenburgh B. 2007. Megafaunal extinctions and the disappearance of a specialized wolf ecomorph // Current Biology. Vol.17. P.1146-1150.
• MacPhee R. D. E., Tikhonov A. N., Mol D., de Marliave C., van der Plicht H., Greenwood A. D., Flemming C. & Agenbroad, L. 2002. Radiocarbon chronologies and extinction dynamics of the late Quaternary mammalian megafauna of the Taimyr Peninsula, Russian Federation // Journal of Archaeological Science. Vol.29. P.1017-1042.
• Matheus P. 1995. Diet and co-ecology of Pleistocene short-faced bears and brown bears in eastern Beringia // Quaternary Research. Vol.44. P.447-453.
• Matheus P. 2003. Locomotor adaptations and ecomorphology of short-faced bears (Arctodus simus) in Eastern Beringia // Paleontology Program, Government of the Yukon, Occasional Papers in Earth Sciences. No.7. P.1-126.
• Merriam J.C. 1912. The fauna of Rancho La Brea. Part II. Canidae // Memoirs of the University of California. Vol.1. No.2. P.217-273.
• Novak R.N. 1979. North American Quaternary Canis. Monograph of the Museum of Natural History, University of Kansas. No.6. 154 p.
• Vereshchagin N.K. 1977. [Berelekh cemetery of mammoths] // Trudy Zoologicheskogo Instituta AN SSSR. Vol.72. P.5-50 [in Russian].
• Vereshchagin N.K. & Baryshnikov G.F. 1992. The ecological structure of the Mammoth Fauna in Eurasia // Annales Zoologici Fennici. Vol.28. P.253-259.
• Zavatsky B.P. 1993. [The Middle Siberia] // Vaisfeld M.A. & Chestin I.E. (eds.). [Bears: Brown Bear, Polar Bear, Asian Black Bear. Distribution, Ecology, Use and Protection]. Moskva, Nauka. P.249-275 [in Russian, with English summary].