Investigations on the Subfossil Fresh-Water Fishes in the Soviet Union

Abstract

INVESTIGATIONS of the fish remains connected with the dwelling places of prehistoric man began as early as the last quarter of the 19th century. The first to study the fish bones obtained in the stations of prehistoric man of our country was K. T. Kessler. In 1882 he published his work on fishes found near Ladoga Lake. Since then material has accumulated which allows us to outline some stages in the history of the eastern European ichthyofauna. Fish remains connected with palaeolithic man are very scarce. Thus far it has been possible to investigate only the discoveries made in Crimean caves (Tichij, 1929) and in stations near the town of Novgorod-Seversky on the banks of the Desna River, a tributary of the Dnieper (Nikolsky, in litt., Lebedev, 1944). Examination of these two collections shows that during the last interglacial epoch the members of the genus Salmo were more common in the Black Sea basin than they are today. Furthermore, the occurrence of the ling, Lota iota, in the collection indicates that the climate of the period studied was more rigorous than that of today. The discovery in the Crimean caves of large specimens of Rutilus frisii and Lucioperca lucioperca shows that in this interglacial epoch the mouth of some large stream, apparently the Palaeo Dnieper, had been situated more to the east than that of the modern Dnieper, i.e., not far from the place where the fish remains were found. At present those large fishes are very rare off the Crimean coast of the Black Sea. In postglacial deposits, fish remains are more abundant, and they are useful for establishing essential differences between the ichthyofaunae of sub-boreal and modern times. For example, from materials found in neolithic stations in the Baltic Sea basin, a higher proportion of thermophilic fishes was obtained than occurs in that area now. Also, K. T. Kessler (1882) has shown that in the sub-boreal period, in Lake Ladoga basin, there had been a considerably greater abundance of Silurus glanis, of Lucioperca lucioperca, and of Lucioperca volgensis. The latter species now occurs solely in the Black and Caspian sea basins and is absent from the Baltic. Still greater changes are observed to have taken place in the ichthyofauna of the White Sea basin (Nikolsky, 1935, 1936, 1943). Fish remains found in stations of the Onega River basin show that the ichthyofauna of the sub-boreal period included many species of fishes-40 per cent of the material-which were of southern origin, which now inhabit the Aral Ponto Caspian province and the Baltic region, and which have disappeared from the White Sea basin. The following species which occurred in the earlier period are no longer found in the White Sea basin: Aspius aspius, Scardinius erythrophthalmus, Abramis ballerus, Silurus glanis. Not only the specific composition but also the abundance of the fishes were different than they are today. In the Onega River basin it was the bream and other