Coleoptera from the 2003 excavations of the mammoth skeleton at Niederweningen, Switzerland

A coleopteran assemblage was obtained from a sequence of samples of the peaty matrix of the mammoth skeleton. Altogether 142 beetle taxa were recognised of which 100 could be determined to species, at least 10 of which are now absent from central Europe although many are still living in northern latitudes. This fauna indicates that the organic sediment accumulated in a largely acid swamp with reedy vegetation surrounding mossy pools of shallow water. The only trees at this time were willows, birches and conifers. Palaeoclimatic estimates based on this beetle fauna indicate that mean July temperatures were ∼10 °C and mean January/February temperatures were below −10 °C. Thus, the swamp was frozen for much of the year but thawed out during the summer months. One curious aspect of this fauna is the rarity of dung beetles, which would have been expected to be common had the deposit been of exactly the same age as the mammoth. To resolve this anomaly, it is suggested that the mammoth became mired in an already existing swamp during the summer thaw and that the carcase, or at least parts of the body some of which were still articulated, had sunk or was trampled into pre-existing soft mud.