SMALL MAMMALS (RODENTIA, LAGOMORPHA, CARNIVORA)OF THE SOUTHERN TRANS-URALS IN THE ATLANTIC PERIODOF THE HOLOCENE
Studies of 5.8 thousand samples of bone and tooth fossils of rodents, lagomorphs and carnivores collected from loose deposits of Chernyshevskaya-III Cave (52°38′ N, 58°53′ E; Kizil District, Chelyabinsk Region, Russia) have allowed for the composition and structure of small mammal communities that inhabited the southern Trans-Urals in the final stage of the Atlantic period (5210 ± 90 BP, Ki-15 500) of the Holocene to be described. The communities included 30 taxa belonging to three orders: Carnivora, Lagomorpha and Rodentia, with 6, 2 and 22 species, respectively. The narrow-skulled vole (49%) dominated the species structure of herbivorous small mammal communities. Codominants were the steppe lemming and the common vole (about 11% each). Steppe (19%) and meadow (18%) groups of species were widespread at that time. Forest and riverside species were also present (about 4% in each group). The existence of a zonal steppe type of small mammal communities with significant participation of mesophilic (mainly meadow) elements are reconstructed for the southern Trans-Urals for that time. The data obtained reveal humid conditions in the study area during the final stage of the Atlantic phase of the Holocene period.