The Late Pleistocene and Holocene rodents of the Pre-Urals subarctic

Abstract

In this paper we present a revision and review of the available palaeofaunal data on Late Pleistocene and Holocene rodents of the subarctic sector adjacent to the Urals, in order to describe the dynamic changes of the rodent fauna. Our main goal was to classify the examined communities in terms of their zonal characteristics. It was shown that the most important changes in the fauna composition and structure occurred ca. 8000–9000 years ago; at that time the arctic rodent complex of the Pleistocene (which included only 3 species) was superseded by that of the forest-tundra type. The latter was composed of 10 species, many of which typical of forest associations. The process of the biota development in the region was strongly affected by the early and extremely abrupt arrival of the Holocene optimum first stage. Later on in the Holocene, the tundra elements increased their role again, but within the same forest-tundra type. Specially discussed are problems with the recent sub-species of the narrow-skulled vole and the collared lemming, and the history of their development.