Late Pleistocene remains of cave bear cubs from a cave at Hochschwab (Styria, Austria)

Autor(en)

Nadja Kavcik-Graumann, Federica Alberti, Doris Döppes, Ronny Friedrich, Susanne Lindauer, Lukas Plan, Julia Stockhammer, Gerhard Withalm, Gernot Rabeder

Abstrakt

On the Hochschwab karst massif in the east of the Northern Calcareous Alps (NCA), the remains of four cave bear cubs were found in a sub vertical cave that opens at 2070 m a.s.l. (Figure 1). There is severe pathology on two individually related mandibular fragments that indicate that the cubs could have fallen into the cave through narrow gaps. There are no remains of adult bears, however. According to the morphology of the teeth, DNA analysis, and C14 data, these juvenile bones and teeth belong to Ursus spelaeus eremus, which lived here at least from 46,000 to 39,000 years before present. This proves that all large plateaus of the NCA were inhabited by cave bears of Ursus spelaeus group during the so-called "cave bear era" of the middle Late Pleistocene. It is discussed which palaeoclimatological conclusions can be drawn from it.

Organisation(en)

Department für Verhaltens- und Kognitionsbiologie, Institut für Paläontologie

Externe Organisation(en)

Universität Potsdam, Curt-Engelhorn-Zentrum Archäometrie gGmbH, Naturhistorisches Museum Wien (NHM), Reiss-Engelhorn-Museen, Universität Wien

Seiten

18-18

Anzahl der Seiten

1

Publikationsdatum

2021

ÖFOS 2012

105118 Paläontologie

Link zum Portal

https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/publications/520e2a82-5198-48f7-8de4-0942b6eecda7