Remains of cave hyenas Crocuta spelaea (Hyaenidae) from Late Pleistocene cave and alluvial localities in southern Western Siberia

Abstract

The results of studying 562 bone remains of Crocuta spelaea (Goldfuss, 1823) from 12 cave sites in Khakassia and Altai and 4 alluvial sites in the upper Ob River are presented. In the Fanatics cave in Khakassia, 3 almost complete skeletons of cave hyenas and one partially preserved were found. In this trap cave, 37–42 thousand years ago, hyenas died falling into a deep karst well. Morphometric analysis of the skulls and bones of the postcranial skeleton showed that the cave hyenas of the Late Pleistocene of southern Western Siberia did not differ in body size from the hyenas of Western Europe. In the alluvial localities of the Upper Ob region, the remains of C. spelaea are extremely rare, averaging 0.07% of the number of megafauna remains, which is several times less than that of the cave lion. In the Altai and Khakassia mountains, the relative abundance of cave hyenas may not have been inferior to that of Panthera leo spelaea (Goldfuss, 1810). During the glaciation periods, when cold and arid mountain-steppe landscapes dominated here, inhabited by diverse and numerous megafauna, the abundance of C. spelaea was the highest. During the interglacial period, against the background of widespread forest vegetation, the abundance of herd-hoofed animals decreased, which led to a several-fold decrease in the number of cave hyena populations. The most recent remains of C. spelaea from the Chik River are dated to the age of 33.4 thousand years ago.