Quaternary large mammals from the Imanay Cave

Abstract

The composition of large mammal fauna from the Imanay Cave in the Southern Urals (53°02' N, 56°26' E) is described in the present study. The paper aims to provide an preliminary description of the large mammal remains from the Imanay Cave in order to establish their taxonomic status, geological age and to detect the factors that led to accumulation of the bone remains in the cave. An analysis of species composition of vertebrate fauna, archaeological finds and radiocarbon dates has shown that accumulation of fossils in the Imanay Cave spanned the whole period of the Late Pleistocene and Holocene. Remains of the small cave bear (Ursus “savini”) and cave lion (Panthera ex gr. fossilis-spelaea) are prevalent in the Pleistocene groups: 9414 (93%) and 536 (5%) bone specimens, respectively. The cave is the only site in the world where mass bone assemblages of two large terrestrial Carnivora species - small cave bear and cave lion – were found simultaneously. The composition of the skeletal samples for both species was described and the age and sex distributions were determined. Though Mousterian stone tools were found in the cave, no trace of the hunt of the bears and lions by humans was detected. The period during which the accumulation of the fossils took place can be broadly determined as the first half of the Late Pleistocene (MIS5–3).