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Worldwide late Pleistocene terrestrial mammal faunas are characterized by stratigraphic associaiicns of species that now have exclusive geographic ranges. These have been interpreted as either taphonomically mixed or representative of communities that no longer exist. Accelerator mass spectrometry 14C dates (n = 60) on single bones of stratigraphically associated fossil micromammals from two American and two Russian sites document for the first time that currently allopatric mammals occurred together between 12,000 and 22,000 yr B.P. on two continents. The existence of mammal communities without modem analogs demonstrates that Northern Hemisphere biological communities are ephemeral and that many modern biomes are younger than 12 ka. Future climate change may result in new nonanalog communities. CHEEK BEND CAM. TENNESSEE: Stratum II PECCARY CAVE. ARKANSAS: Unit C 0 w 17.m 17,500 b M m l u s xenthognethus Desypos bellus * Clethriommys gepperi rn Geomys bursarius 0 P h e n m y s inlemdius 0 Blanne &dinensis o Neolome floridena 0 Synapkmys borealis 0 Scalopus equelicus

During the last decades a considerable amount of data on mammals from Mikulino (=Eemian) deposits of the central and southern parts of the Russian Plain has been produced. Mammuthus primigenius (the early type), Palaeoloxodon antiquus (the advanced form), Arvicola ex gr. terrestris, Eolagurus cf. luteus and Lagurus cf. lagurus characterize this period. The so-called 'Shkurlatian mammal assemblage' was distinguished on the basis of a number of Eemian faunas.The age of the mammal localities was established by using various geological and palaeontological evidence, together with the results of palaeomagnetic studies and absolute dating. The evolutionary level of the diagnostic species allows correlations between localities from different parts of the Russian Plain that have varying taphonomical conditions. The mammal-and malacofauna of the Mikulino Interglacial can also be used as a basis for correlations between the Karangat marine strata of the Black Sea and the continental deposits (alluvial sediments of the second terrace of the Sudost' River and the Salyn phase of the Mezin fossil pedocomplex (see Dodonov et al., this volume). Forest, forest-steppe and steppe zone landscapes have been reconstructed for the central and southern parts of the Russian Plain on the basis of the Eemian faunas.

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