Shelter in Smoleń III - A unique example of stratified Holocene clastic cave sediments in Central Europe, a lithostratigraphic stratotype and a record of regional paleoecology.

Maciej T Krajcarz,Magdalena Sudoł-Procyk,Magdalena Krajcarz,Marcin Szymanek,Witold P Alexandrowicz,Andrea Pereswiet-Soltan,Julien Louys

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0228546

Abstract

A cave site Shelter in Smoleń III (southern Poland) contains an approximately 2-m-thick stratified sequence of Upper Pleistocene and Holocene clastic sediments, unique for Central Europe. The sequence contents abundant fossil fauna, including mollusk, rodent and bat remains. The cave sites with long profiles of subfossil fauna present a great value for reconstructions of regional terrestrial paleoenvironment. We explore the stratigraphy of this site through analyses of the lithology and geochemistry of sediments, radiocarbon dating of faunal and human remains and charcoals, and archaeological study, as well as the paleoecology derived from the taxonomic composition of fossil faunal assemblages. Our data show that the entire period of the Holocene is recorded in the rockshelter, which makes that site an exceptional and highly valuable case. We present paleoenvironmental reconstructions of regional importance, and we propose to regard Shelter in Smoleń III as a regional stratigraphic stratotype of Holocene clastic cave sediments.

Highlights

Cave sediments are important source of information for understanding the history of terrestrial geoecosystems
Almost two meters-thick sedimentary sequence of Late Glacial and Holocene sediments in Shelter in Smoleń III (ShSIII) is unique among the mid-European caves, and among the caves of its northern part (Carpathian foreland) in particular
Holocene sequences are known from other sites in Central Europe, only on rare occasions they have been set in the certain chronological framework

Summary

Introduction

Cave sediments are important source of information for understanding the history of terrestrial geoecosystems (see, e.g., [1,2,3,4,5]). Due to their concave morphology and solid walls, many caves serve as sediment traps with the ability to continuously collect sediments for millennia [6]. Data on past terrestrial fauna are well protected in caves (see, e.g., [7,8])

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