Hominid skull fragments from Late Pleistocene layers in Leine Valley (Sarstedt, District of Hildesheim, Germany).

Three cranial fragments were recovered from coarse-grained deposits dug up by a suction dredge from gravel pits on the Leine river flats in the vicinity of Sarstedt (northwestern Germany). Also recovered were a number of artefacts which, upon careful inspection, could be assigned to the Middle Paleolithic. The geological pattern of the Leine Valley in this region suggests that these fragments were deposited in the lower terrace during a yet undetermined warm period-possibly Br?rup or Odderade-during the Weichsel glaciation. However, attribution to the Eemian period or a Saale interstadial cannot be ruled out. The features of the Sarstedt (Sst) I infant temporal are known from Neanderthals (e.g., Weimar-Ehringsdorf, Engis, Krapina 1) and can be seen in specimens from the European late- Homo erectus group as well. Subadult individuals do not always exhibit full development of features characteristic for adults and-to some extent-anticipate the succeeding developmental stage (i.e., neoteny). The Neanderthal autapomorphies characterizing the fragments of the occipital and the parietal are certainly consistent with assigning both unequivocally to the species H. neanderthalensis. The presence of Middle Paleolithic artefacts recovered from the same deposits are commensurate with the presence of Neanderthals. However, there is no clear contextual association of any archaeological and fossil human material. Future DNA research will hopefully add up to the established morphological picture.     

A new Late Pleistocene non-anthropogenic vertebrate assemblage from the northern Iberian Peninsula: Artazu VII (Arrasate,Basque Country)

Late Pleistocene palaeontological sites without human intervention are limited in the Cantabrian region, and even more so those with a good state of preservation and rich biodiversity. A new vertebrate fossiliferous locality discovered at Kobate Quarry (Arrasate, northern Iberian Peninsula) is presented in this article. This site, in which remains of 40 different vertebrate taxa were accumulated, acted as a natural trap. The preliminary vertebrate faunal list includes five amphibian taxa, four reptiles, seven species of birds and 24 mammalian taxa. While small mammals are represented by 13 small mammal taxa (seven in the Order Rodentia, five in the Order Eulipotyphla, and one in the Order Chiroptera), the large mammal fauna comprises eleven species, including ungulates and carnivores. The palaeoecology inferred from this faunal assemblage suggests the existence of large forested areas with some grassland and a watercourse nearby, within a notably warm and humid climate. These palaeoenvironmental conditions, combined with AMS and AAR results carried out in macrofaunal bone samples, suggest that the deposit from Artazu VII would be located in the first half of the Late Pleistocene, in the Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 5c.     

Late holocene environmental changes in the Southwestern Chukchi Sea inferred from diatom analysis

The environmental changes in the southern part of the Chukchi Sea over the last 2300 years (two warmings during the ~262 BC–630 AD and ~630–1300 periods AD and 1 cooling ~1300–1840 AD) were inferred from changes in the content of diatoms in sediments (per gram), the ratio of dominant species, and the ecological structure of diatom assemblages. The sediment age was determined based on the recent ²¹⁰Pb sedimentation rates at the sampling point (0.43 mm/yr) and radiocarbon dating of mollusk shells. The environmental changes in the southern Chukchi Sea that were inferred from the diatom analysis correlate with global climate changes, viz., the warming events of the early (Roman) and the middle (Medieval) Subatlantic and the cooling of the late (Little Ice Age) Subatlantic.     

Taphonomy and diagenesis in diatom assemblages; a Late Pleistocene palaeoecological study from Lake Magadi,Kenya

During these investigations the following species of Anostraca have been found: Chirocephalus diaphanus Prevost 1803, Chirocephalus brevipalpis (Orghidan, 1953), Streptocephalus torvicornis Waga 1892, Branchipus serbicus Marinek & Petrov 1988, Branchipus stagnalis L. (1758) and Branchipus sp. Thus, the total number of species discovered in Yugoslavia is 13.The shape of the frontal shield and the degree of flexure of the distal articles of antennae II in males are of no relevance to taxonomy in the genus Branchipus Schaeffer 1776. However, the apophyses on antennae II in males, shape of antennae II and of the ovisac in females, structure of eggs, and of appendages appear species-specific. We conclude that the differentiation of B. stagnalis into two forms (forma typica and forma visnyai) as well as the separation of B. visnyai Kertész 1956 as a distinct species are unfounded.     

Morphometric analysis of Cartesian coordinates of the human skull

A method for locating the three dimensional coordinates of cranial landmarks with respect to the Frankfort, midsagittal, and coronal planes is presented. Sliding calipers were used to obtain the distances from left and right porion and apex to each landmark, except for a few points where spreading calipers are required. In the present example, 35 landmarks (for a total of 105 measurements) were located for each of 35 Peruvian precolumbian skulls. These distances were entered into a program (SKULL) which calculates the Cartesian coordinates of each landmark. The XYZ coordinates of each landmark contain all the information necessary for calculation of the distances between any two landmarks, and these distances may also be obtained as output from program SKULL, if desired (595 distances if all 35 landmarks are used). Reliability of the location of coordinates was determined by comparing computed distances among selected landmarks from program SKULL with traditional anthropometric measurements. Satisfactory agreements were found. Direct multivariate analysis of the coordinates of the landmarks produced insights not available in traditional multivariate analysis of conventional anthropometric measurements.     

Pleistocene and Holocene rhinocerotids (Mammalia,Perissodactyla) from the Indochinese Peninsula

Rhinocerotids were abundant and diverse in southern Asia during the Pleistocene and the Holocene epochs, as shown by palaeontological and archaeological discoveries published throughout the last century, whereas the only living rhinoceros in the Indochinese Peninsula is Rhinoceros sondaicus (Cat Loc Reserve, Vietnam). The Pleistocene-Holocene Indochinese rhinocerotid record consists of the extinct species Dicerorhinus gwebinensis (Early Pleistocene, Myanmar) and representatives of the Recent Asian Species Rhinoceros unicornis (Middle-Late Pleistocene), R. sondaicus (Middle Pleistocene-Recent), and Dicerorhinus sumatrensis (Middle Pleistocene-Holocene). This fossil record is synthesized, mapped for Early/Middle/Late Pleistocene and Holocene/Recent times, and then compared with coeval rhinocerotid assemblages from the adjacent areas (South China), subregions (Indian, Sundaic, Philippine, and Wallacean), and region (Palearctic), from a biochronological and biogeographical perspective.     

Late Pleistocene molluscan assemblages from the coral reefs of the Kenya coast

Since the Last Interglacial, there have been profound changes in the nature of the fringing reef along the Kenya coast. These are most apparent in the back-reef region where a marked decline in habitat diversity has led to a significant reduction in the variety of molluscan assemblages. Despite dramatic changes in the composition of these assemblages, very few species have become extinct. The four late Pleistocene species apparently missing from the Recent fauna of the Kenya coast still occur further east in the Indonesia-West Pacific region. There is evidence to suggest that range retractions from the periphery to the core region occurred at the same time in other parts of the Indo-Pacific province too. The province's margins may well have been more susceptible to fluctuations in certain environmental parameters, such as temperature, during the Pleistocene climatic cycles.     

Morphometric study of allometric skull growth in the temnospondyl Archegosaurus decheni from the Permian/Carboniferous of Germany

The skulls of ninety-six specimens of the temnospondyl Archegosaurus decheni from the Permian/Carboniferous of Germany, ranging in length from almost 20 to almost 280 mm, are used in a morphometric analysis of cranial ontogeny. A Cartesian transformation, a bivariate regression analysis, and a principal component analysis (PCA) reveal changes of general skull proportions and of particular skull roofing bones during growth. The preorbital part of the skull exhibits a much faster growth rate than the postorbital region, whereas the orbits exhibit a considerable decrease in relative size. The skull bones possess low allometry coefficients of growth in width, what leads to a proportionally much more slender skull than in most other temnospondyls, comparable only to other archegosaurids, the cochleosaurid Chenoprosopus, and longirostrine stereospondyls like Australerpeton and trematosaurids. Distinctly negative allometry of the width of the cheek region, where part of the adductor musculature originated, suggests a weaker bite in A. decheni than in temnospondyls with broad-parabolic skulls like Onchiodon and Sclerocephalus. Results from the analysis of skull growth in A. decheni offer a biological interpretation of the life habits of this animal as becoming increasingly more adaptated to piscivory during ontogeny. The continuous growth of the skull with a gradual shift in proportions supports, in conjunction with morphological data, the hypothesis that A. decheni did not undergo a metamorphosis.     

Remains of Late Pleistocene reindeer from Chmielewo,northeast Poland

Reindeer (Rangifer tarandus L.) remains in Europe are well represented in Late Pleistocene sites in France, Germany, Ukraine, Poland and other countries. In a chalk mine at Chmielewo (near niardwy Lake, NE Poland) four antlers were recovered. Radiocarbon assays date the fossils to the end of the Pleistocene. All antlers belong to male reindeer. One of the discovered specimens is an uncast antler of the tundra reindeer form, while the others are of the woodland reindeer form. The uncast antler has distinctly visible parieto-frontal fixation of the beam to the skull that confirms its parallel position in relation to the ground.     

Revision of Late Pleistocene and Holocene Galliformes Fauna from the Crimean Mountains

The Late Pleistocene and Holocene Galliformes faunas from the Crimean Mountains included seven species of birds belonging to the families Phasianidae and Tetraonidae: Phasianus colchicus, Alectoris chukar, Perdix perdix, Coturnix coturnix, Lyrurus tetrix, Lagopus mutus, and Lagopus lagopus. The habitation of Gallus representatives in the Crimea in the Late Pleistocene has not been confirmed. Representatives of the family Phasianidae were present in the Crimean fauna at least for most of the Late Pleistocene. All of them survived until the Late Holocene. Pheasants became extinct around the eighteenth century, and the rock partridge seems to have disappeared only in the first half of the twentieth century. The species were restored in the Crimea in the second half of the twentieth century. Gray partridges were common resident birds of the Crimean Mountains throughout the Late Pleistocene and Holocene. Quail was not a numerous breeding species of the Crimean Mountains at the same time, but mass migration of this species through the Crimea appeared only at the end of the Late Pleistocene and evolved over the Holocene warming. Species of Tetraonidae appeared in the fauna of the Crimea long before the beginning of the cold-phase maximum of the last glaciations but no later than 28000 years ago and became extinct in the Early Holocene warming but no later than 9000 years ago.     

A Hominin Femur with Archaic Affinities from the Late Pleistocene of Southwest China

The number of Late Pleistocene hominin species and the timing of their extinction are issues receiving renewed attention following genomic evidence for interbreeding between the ancestors of some living humans and archaic taxa. Yet, major gaps in the fossil record and uncertainties surrounding the age of key fossils have meant that these questions remain poorly understood. Here we describe and compare a highly unusual femur from Late Pleistocene sediments at Maludong (Yunnan), Southwest China, recovered along with cranial remains that exhibit a mixture of anatomically modern human and archaic traits. Our studies show that the Maludong femur has affinities to archaic hominins, especially Lower Pleistocene femora. However, the scarcity of later Middle and Late Pleistocene archaic remains in East Asia makes an assessment of systematically relevant character states difficult, warranting caution in assigning the specimen to a species at this time. The Maludong fossil probably samples an archaic population that survived until around 14,000 years ago in the biogeographically complex region of Southwest China.     

New evidence for the greater noctule bat (Nyctalus lasiopterus) in the Late Pleistocene of western Europe

This article reports a new record of the greater noctule Nyctalus lasiopterus (Schreber, 1780) in the Late Pleistocene of Europe. A fragment of a left mandible from this species was collected in Layer O (around 55 ka) from the Abric Romaní rock shelter, providing evidence of the presence of the greater noctule in north-eastern Spain during the latest Late Pleistocene. The relevance of this new record, which is geographically not reported up to now in the area, is discussed in terms of environmental changes.     

Microbiological analysis of a mummy from the archeological museum in Zagreb

In this paper we report the results of the microbiological analysis of the samples taken from the mummy from the collection of the Archaeological museum in Zagreb, Croatia. Samples were taken from specific places such as oral, orbital, abdominal cavity and bandages surrounding the mummy, and analyzed in Department of Microbiology and Hospital Infections in University Hospital "Dubrava" in Zagreb and in National Reference Laboratory for systemic mycoses of Croatian National Institute of Public Health in Zagreb. The analysis indicated that all of the found organisms were non-primary pathogenic and are not harmful for healthy humans. Isolated microorganisms mainly belonged to the group of saprophytic fungi as listed: Monilia spp., Penicillium spp., Alternaria spp., Aspergillus fumigatus, Aspergillus nidulans, Rhizopus spp. and Chrysosporium spp. and to the genus of saprophytic bacteria, Bacillus spp.     

Faunal and taphonomic analyses of a Late Pleistocene bird-bone assemblage from a cave deposit in north-west Hungary

The paper presents a faunal and taphonomic discussion of the Late Pleistocene bird-bone assemblages excavated in Kálvária Cave n^o 4 near the city of Tatabánya in north-west Hungary. A total of 1150 complete and fragmentary avian remains were recovered from two locations on two separate occasions. Of these, 873 bones could be identified on the species-, family- or order-level. Fifteen of the identified 19 bird taxa could be determined on the species level and they indicate a habitat typical of forest margins. Several species yielded juvenile or subadult specimens, which in view of the breeding period means that these birds died during the summer, most probably between July and September.Each of the two assemblages had distinct characteristics. The high number of kestrel (Falco tinnunculus) long bones in Assemblage I generally included complete skeletal parts from subadult birds, suggesting a colony which bred in the cave, whose chicks died of natural causes. Even though the bones were exposed to a certain degree of water transport and soil corrosion, they were generally well preserved in the cave sediment. Size-characteristic analyses demonstrated that, in spite of the undeveloped morphological features, the sizes of limb bones usually corresponded to those of adult birds.The greater part of the material in Assemblage II originated from a stratified deposit and was dominated by small and fragmented remains of various taxa. The taxa which could be identified and the taphonomic features of the remains suggest that owl pellets formed the core of this bone assemblage.     

Biological implications of a suggested Late Pleistocene desiccation of Lake Victoria

If, as recently suggested, Lake Victoria dried up completely in theLate Pleistocene and refilled c 12,400 BP, not only must therate of speciation of its flock of cichlid fishes have been extremelyrapid but, more significantly, so too must the rate of morphologicaldifferentiation. Such desiccation also implies that fishes belongingto seven other families achieved endemic status since the lakerefilled, and in one case became generically distinct, acquiredstriking morphological/physiological adaptations to life in deepwater, and split into two species. Such rapid evolution within thesefamilies appears to have no parallel in Africa. This suggests thatprudence be applied in the interpretation of what appears to beunambiguous evidence, especially as this seems to be at variance withwhat also appears to be convincing geophysical evidence of adifferent kind.     

A distinct large vole lineage from the Late Pliocene - Early Pleistocene of China

A distinct large vole lineage involving three species from the Late Pliocene - Early Pleistocene of China is morphologically and quantitatively delineated. A special sinuous line (linea sinuosa) pattern, not previously recognized, diagnoses the new lineage, and distinguishes the species in the lineage from all other vole genera known either from China or elsewhere. At present, only two morphologically discrete evolutionary stages can be recognized in the lineage. The primitive stage is represented by rooted Mimomys peii and M. banchiaonicus, and the advanced stage is represented by the newly described rootless Heteromimomys zhengi nov. gen., nov. sp. from the Paleolithic site of Renzidong Cave in Anhui Province. The schmelzmuster of M. peii and Heteromimomys zhengi nov. gen., nov. sp. is also examined to provide more details about the lineage. This lineage diverged from Mimomys by the Late Pliocene within North China. The comparison between the arvicoline species co-existing with Heteromimomys zhengi nov. gen., nov. sp. and those from Haiyan Formation in the Yushe Basin, Shanxi Province, suggests the age of Heteromimomys zhengi nov. gen., nov. sp. can be correlated to or predate the Haiyan Formation, which is in reversely magnetized sediment identified as Chron 2r. The loss of roots in the lineage corresponds with a cooling event at the beginning of the Pleistocene, and seems to characterize the Nihewanian age of the Chinese Land Mammal ages from the perspective of arvicoline biochronology.