engleski

Review of Upper Pleistocene mammalian assemblages in Croatian caves

Data base collected from the published literature shows that the main character of Upper Pleistocene mammalian assemblages found in Croatian caves is common presence of large carnivore taxa and overwhelming abundance of cave bears. The paleoecological interpretation of these assemblages yielded a conclusion that the conditions were more severe during the Early Upper Palaeolithic, and that several taxa can not be used as environmental indicators. At the same time, the frequency of archaeological assemblages dominated by cave bear can be used as a measure of intensity of human settlement: bear dominated assemblages are most common during the Early Upper Palaeolithic and human occupation in the area was relatively scarce. Unfortunately, faunal data is greatly reduced in value due to the absence of taphonomic information, and most of the Palaeolithic sites need to be reanalysed.

Upper Pleistocene; mammalia; caves; Croatia

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