Late Pleistocene Crocuta crocuta spelaea in Bulgaria: distribution and history of research (Carnivora: Hyaenidae)

The paper summarizes all scattered data from the last 116 years on the distribution of the Late Pleistocene cave hyena in Bulgaria, a part of them unpublished. Data from 24 fossil sites (Middle Pleistocene – Late Pleistocene) in the country are presented. The fossil record in Bulgaria proves the wide distribution of the species in the karst areas of the low-mountain regions of the country. Its Pleistocene localities are concentrated in the Predbalkan Mts. (83%), Strandja Mts. (8%), Western Rhodopes Mts. (4%) and southern Dobruja Plain (4%). They are situated at the altitudes between 136 and 1250 m a.s.l., about 75% of them at 136–400 m a. s. l. All (except one) Bulgarian sites represent former human dwellings, which indicates competition between man and this carnivore for the cave spaces.

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Past distribution of Ursus arctos in Bulgaria: fossil and subfossil records (Carnivora: Ursidae)

Lynx, new series ◽

10.37520/lynx.2020.001 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 51 (1) ◽

pp. 5-18

Author(s):

Zlatozar Boev

Keyword(s):

Bronze Age ◽

19Th Century ◽

Iron Age ◽

Ursus Arctos ◽

Brown Bear ◽

Scattered Data ◽

Middle Pleistocene ◽

Mountain Regions ◽

The 19Th Century ◽

The Bronze Age

The paper summarizes numerous scattered data from the last 120 years on the former distribution of the brown bear (Ursus arctos) in Bulgaria. Data from 52 (13 fossil and 39 subfossil) sites (from the Middle Pleistocene to the 19th century AD) are presented. The brown bear former distribution was much wider than the present occurrence. The species range covered the whole territory of the country, including mountain regions, as well as vast lowland and plain landscapes. The geographical, altitudinal and chronological distribution are presented and analyzed. The record from the Kozarnika Cave (1.000,000–700,000 years BP) is one of the earliest records of this species in Europe. About 73% of the localities are situated between 100 and 500 m a. s. l. Twelve sites contain Paleolithic finds, one Mesolithic, 14 Neolithic, six Chalcolithic, five from the Bronze Age, and two from the Iron Age. The remaining 12 subrecent sites are dated to the last ca. 2,400 years. Most of the species findings came from archeological sites – prehistoric and ancient settlements. The distribution of Ursus arctos once covered the entire territory of the country, including the vast regions such as Ludogorie, Dobruja, the Danube Lowland, the Upper Thracian Lowland, as well as the Sakar, Strandja, Sredna Gora, and the Predbalkan Mts.

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The Eemian - local sequences, global perspectives: introduction

Netherlands Journal of Geosciences – Geologie en Mijnbouw ◽

10.1017/s0016774600021661 ◽

2000 ◽

Vol 79 (2-3) ◽

pp. 129-133 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Thijs van Kolfschoten ◽

Philip L. Gibbard

Keyword(s):

New Zealand ◽

Late Pleistocene ◽

Working Group ◽

Middle Pleistocene ◽

Global Perspectives ◽

European Literature ◽

History Of

The history of this volume goes back to a 1973 INQUA congress in New Zealand, where an INQUA Commission of Stratigraphy working group on major subdivisions of the Pleistocene was established. The Pleistocene series/epoch was hitherto generally subdivided into the Lower/Early, Middle and Upper/Late Pleistocene (see, among others, Zeuner, 1935, 1959) but the boundaries between these subseries/subepochs were not formally defined. The boundary between the Early and Middle Pleistocene was, in the European literature, put at the base of the Cromerian Complex (Zagwijn, 1963) or at the Brunhes/Matuyama magnetic boundary (Richmond, 1996).

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Pleistocene reefs of the Egyptian Red Sea: environmental change and community persistence

PeerJ ◽

10.7717/peerj.3504 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 5 ◽

pp. e3504 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Lorraine R. Casazza

Keyword(s):

Environmental Change ◽

Red Sea ◽

Late Pleistocene ◽

Gulf Of Aqaba ◽

Middle Pleistocene ◽

Coral Communities ◽

History Of ◽

Middle And Late Pleistocene ◽

Reef Fauna ◽

Reef Zones

The fossil record of Red Sea fringing reefs provides an opportunity to study the history of coral-reef survival and recovery in the context of extreme environmental change. The Middle Pleistocene, the Late Pleistocene, and modern reefs represent three periods of reef growth separated by glacial low stands during which conditions became difficult for symbiotic reef fauna. Coral diversity and paleoenvironments of eight Middle and Late Pleistocene fossil terraces are described and characterized here. Pleistocene reef zones closely resemble reef zones of the modern Red Sea. All but one species identified from Middle and Late Pleistocene outcrops are also found on modern Red Sea reefs despite the possible extinction of most coral over two-thirds of the Red Sea basin during glacial low stands. Refugia in the Gulf of Aqaba and southern Red Sea may have allowed for the persistence of coral communities across glaciation events. Stability of coral communities across these extreme climate events indicates that even small populations of survivors can repopulate large areas given appropriate water conditions and time.

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The earliest fossil record of the bandicoot rat (Bandicota indica) from the early Middle Pleistocene of Taiwan with discussion on the Quaternary history of the species

Quaternary International ◽

10.1016/j.quaint.2019.06.012 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 523 ◽

pp. 37-45

Author(s):

Ai Kawamura ◽

Chun-Hsiang Chang ◽

Yoshinari Kawamura

Keyword(s):

Fossil Record ◽

Middle Pleistocene ◽

History Of ◽

Quaternary History

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Rediscovering Lutra lutra from Grotta Romanelli (southern Italy) in the framework of the puzzling evolutionary history of Eurasian otter

PalZ ◽

10.1007/s12542-021-00553-y ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Beniamino Mecozzi ◽

Alessio Iannucci ◽

Fabio Bona ◽

Ilaria Mazzini ◽

Pierluigi Pieruccini ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Late Pleistocene ◽

Evolutionary History ◽

Middle Pleistocene ◽

Lutra Lutra ◽

Multidisciplinary Research ◽

Historical Collections ◽

Eurasian Otter ◽

History Of ◽

Early Late ◽

Late Middle Pleistocene

AbstractA river otter hemimandible has been rediscovered during the revision of the historical collections of G.A. Blanc from Grotta Romanelli, complementing the ongoing multidisciplinary research fieldwork on the site. The specimen, recovered from the level G (“terre rosse”; early Late Pleistocene or late Middle Pleistocene), is here assigned to Lutra lutra. Indeed, morphological and morphometric comparisons with other Quaternary Lutrinae fossils from Europe allow to exclude an attribution to the relatively widespread and older Lutra simplicidens, characterized by distinctive carnassial proportions. Differences with Cyrnaonyx antiqua, which possessed a more robust, shellfish-feeding dentition, support the view of a successful niche repartition between the two species during the late Middle to Late Pleistocene of Europe. The occurrence of Lutra lutra from the “terre rosse” of Grotta Romanelli suggests deep modifications of the landscapes due to the ecological adaptation of the taxon, and indicates that the Eurasian otter spread into Europe at the Middle–Late Pleistocene transition.

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Taphonomic implications of barnacle encrusted sea lion bones from the middle Pleistocene Port Orford Formation, coastal Oregon

Journal of Paleontology ◽

10.1666/13-005 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 87 (4) ◽

pp. 657-663 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

Robert W. Boessenecker

Keyword(s):

Size Range ◽

Trace Fossils ◽

Wide Distribution ◽

Zalophus Californianus ◽

Middle Pleistocene ◽

Thoracic Vertebrae ◽

Sea Lion ◽

Minimum Period ◽

Prolonged Contact ◽

History Of

Fossil evidence of barnacle encrustation of vertebrate bones is reported from the middle Pleistocene Port Orford Formation of southern coastal Oregon. This material includes two associated thoracic vertebrae and a femur referable to the extinct sea lion Proterozetes ulysses that are encrusted by 1400+ individual barnacles (cf. Hesperibalanus hesperius), and a scapula of Zalophus californianus with barnacle attachment scars. In areas, the encrusting barnacles exhibit a roughly bimodal size range, and small barnacles are observed directly encrusting other larger individuals. The size, probable age, and lifespan of extant Hesperibalanus hesperius indicates a minimum period of four to seven months of seafloor exposure between decomposition and burial, although this estimate must be longer because at least two colonization events are represented. Barnacle attachment traces are identified as Anellusichnus circularis. The wide distribution of barnacles on some of these bones suggests these were regularly overturned by bottom currents, which would prevent barnacles from being smothered by prolonged contact with the sediment. Detailed study of barnacle-induced trace fossils on these specimens suggests that episkeletozoans and their traces can be useful sources of data regarding the biostratinomic history of vertebrate fossils.

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The origin and evolution of Homo sapiens

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences ◽

10.1098/rstb.2015.0237 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 371 (1698) ◽

pp. 20150237 ◽

Cited By ~ 117

Author(s):

Chris Stringer

Keyword(s):

Human Evolution ◽

Late Pleistocene ◽

Fossil Record ◽

Homo Sapiens ◽

Species Recognition ◽

Genetic Data ◽

Middle Stone Age ◽

Middle Pleistocene ◽

Last Common Ancestor ◽

The Impact

If we restrict the use of Homo sapiens in the fossil record to specimens which share a significant number of derived features in the skeleton with extant H. sapiens , the origin of our species would be placed in the African late middle Pleistocene, based on fossils such as Omo Kibish 1, Herto 1 and 2, and the Levantine material from Skhul and Qafzeh. However, genetic data suggest that we and our sister species Homo neanderthalensis shared a last common ancestor in the middle Pleistocene approximately 400–700 ka, which is at least 200 000 years earlier than the species origin indicated from the fossils already mentioned. Thus, it is likely that the African fossil record will document early members of the sapiens lineage showing only some of the derived features of late members of the lineage. On that basis, I argue that human fossils such as those from Jebel Irhoud, Florisbad, Eliye Springs and Omo Kibish 2 do represent early members of the species, but variation across the African later middle Pleistocene/early Middle Stone Age fossils shows that there was not a simple linear progression towards later sapiens morphology, and there was chronological overlap between different ‘archaic’ and ‘modern’ morphs. Even in the late Pleistocene within and outside Africa, we find H. sapiens specimens which are clearly outside the range of Holocene members of the species, showing the complexity of recent human evolution. The impact on species recognition of late Pleistocene gene flow between the lineages of modern humans, Neanderthals and Denisovans is also discussed, and finally, I reconsider the nature of the middle Pleistocene ancestor of these lineages, based on recent morphological and genetic data. This article is part of the themed issue ‘Major transitions in human evolution’.

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