Early Pleistocene Bovidae from Palan-Tyukan (Azerbaijan)

Abstract

The Early Pleistocene site of Palan-Tyukan (MNQ18, ca 1.85 Mya) is located in Transcaucasia, northwestern Azerbaijan. In total, more than 300 mammalian bones were collected there by one of the authors (M.V. Sablin) in 1986 and 1990. The remains were laid close to each other in a 25 m2 lens-like accumulation, in a stratum of normally magnetized (the upper part of the Olduvai subchron) yellowish-grey Lower Apsheron loams. No any excavations have been carried here out since. The present study is based on the analysis of the Bovidae remains. The material is represented by fragments of skulls and horn cores, isolated teeth and bones of the postcranial skeleton. As a result of the revision of the collection, Leptobos (Smertiobos) cf. etruscus (Falconer, 1859), Gazellospira torticornis (Aymard, 1854) and Gazella cf. bouvrainae (Kostopoulos, 1996) were identified. The degree of the unworn M3 tooth hypsodonty of Leptobos, as well as the size and morphology of limb bones indicate a greater similarity with those of L. etruscus from Olivola and Tasso. The characteristics of the horn cores, as well as the upper teeth and limb bones of the medium-sized spiral-horned antelope from Palan-Tyukan indicate a greater similarity with those of the nominative subspecies G. torticornis torticornis. The dimensions and degree of flattening of the horn cores, as well as the parameters of the p4 tooth, are similar to those of the medium-sized gazelle G. bouvrainae, described from several Early Pleistocene localities of Greece. The taxonomic composition of the Bovidae association from Palan-Tyukan is consistent with the previously determined stratigraphic position of the locality, the fauna from which belongs to the Psekups faunal complex of Eastern Europe, correlated with the Late Villafranchian of Western Europe. The composition of these herbivores community testifies to the spread of savanna-like forest-steppe landscapes in the west of Transcaucasia during this period of the Early Pleistocene.