Abstract
Fossil hyena remains recovered from Geographical Society Cave in the southern part of Primorskii Territory in Russia are referred, as a result of this study, to Crocuta ultima ussurica. The available radiocarbon dates define a time of the fossiliferous layer as the warm stage of the Late Pleistocene (MIS 3). Morphological difference between C. ultima ussurica and C. crocuta spelaea appeared to be as follows: the former species has more robust (with regards to the skull size) cheek teeth implying bone-crushing adaptation; the latter species exhibits more carnivorous specialization. Taphonomical analysis of the bone assemblage suggests the cave was used as a hyena den; no essential dissimilarity is observed between hyena dens in Europe/Western Siberia and in the Russian Far East. The existence of two chronosubspecies is proposed: C. ultima ultima from the Middle Pleistocene of China and C. u. ussurica from the Late Pleistocene of the Russian Far East and China.
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