Small mammals from the Strashnaya cave (Northwest Altai, West Siberia, Russia)

A sequence of small mammal associations has been studied from the Paleolithic site of Strashnaya cave (Altai Mountains, West Siberia, Russia). The total faunal composition includes 45 species of rodents, bats, insectivores, and lagomorphs. The dominant groups in each of 10 layers that included small mammal remains are rock voles, grey voles and zokors. Co-dominating groups are ground squirrel, marmots, steppe lemmings, and red-backed voles. Small mammals from the Strashnaya cave indicate that during Late Pleistocene winters in the region could have been warmer than now. They also suggest highly mosaic biotopes around the cave in Late Pleistocene that includes open steppe, desert, floodplain, and forest. Small mammals show open areas such as steppes, floodplain and meadows in the early Holocene. The modern small mammal fauna confidently indicate taiga forest environments.