Shelter in Smoleń III – A unique example of stratified Holocene clastic cave sediments in Central Europe, a lithostratigraphic stratotype and a record of regional paleoecology

Abstract

A cave site Shelter in Smoleń III (southern Poland) contains an approximately 2-m-thick stratified sequence of Upper Pleistocene and Holocene clastic sediments, unique for Central Europe. The sequence contents abundant fossil fauna, including mollusk, rodent and bat remains. The cave sites with long profiles of subfossil fauna present a great value for reconstructions of regional terrestrial paleoenvironment. We explore the stratigraphy of this site through analyses of the lithology and geochemistry of sediments, radiocarbon dating of faunal and human remains and charcoals, and archaeological study, as well as the paleoecology derived from the taxonomic composition of fossil faunal assemblages. Our data show that the entire period of the Holocene is recorded in the rockshelter, which makes that site an exceptional and highly valuable case. We present paleoenvironmental reconstructions of regional importance, and we propose to regard Shelter in Smoleń III as a regional stratigraphic stratotype of Holocene clastic cave sediments.

Pre-LGM loess deposits in caves of Polish Jura – occurrence and stratigraphic importance

“…All these characteristics allow the regarding of the pre-LGM cave loess units in the Polish Jura as key paleoclimate indicators, as well as climatostratigraphic units andif supported with absolute chronology or a well-constrained stratigraphic position -as lithostratigraphic markers. In the light of the accelerating number of excavations in caves and rock shelters of the Polish Jura in recent years (e.g., Sudoł et al 2013;Wojenka et al 2016Wojenka et al , 2017Kot et al, 2019Kot et al, , 2021Kot et al, , 2022aWilczyński et al 2020;Krajcarz et al 2020;Berto et al 2021), the characterization of the stratigraphic usefulness of loess deposits is of crucial importance.…”

Depositional history of a talus cone in an arid intermontane basin in Central Asia: An interdisciplinary study at the Late Pleistocene–Late Holocene Obishir‐I site, Kyrgyzstan

“…The study of the Quaternary infill was conducted in 2019 within the current archaeological trench, which uncovered a profile (circa 4 × 1.5 m) just in front of the rock shelter (Figure 2b). The site was investigated using a common geological approach (Goldberg & Macphail, 2013; Karkanas & Goldberg, 2018; Krajcarz et al, 2020; Macphail & Goldberg, 2017). The stratigraphic units (Table 1) were identified using both lithostratigraphic characteristics (differences in texture, color, and small sedimentary structures) and an allostratigraphic approach (presence of unconformities) according to the recommendations of Hughes (2010) and Räsänen et al (2009).…”

“…Another set (≈1 g each) was decomposed with 30% hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) to remove and estimate the amount of organic matter. Pretreatments were performed according to existing methodologies (Krajcarz et al, 2020). For the estimation of organic carbon (TOC) and organic nitrogen (TN), elemental analysis (Vario MicroCUBE CHNS analyzer) was performed for the HCl‐pretreated sediment samples (≈4 mg each).…”

Ancient bat remains illustrate the role of caves as habitat anchors in the temporally dynamic landscape of the Grand Canyon

“…For example, Bechstein's bat (Myotis bechsteinii), a thermophilous species considered a tracer of Quaternary warm periods, occurred during a climate phase in central Europe that was long, warm, and dry, sandwiched between two cold-humid phases (Blant et al 2010). In southern Poland, fossil remains of at least 246 individuals representing 24 taxa record the entire period of the Holocene (Krajcarz et al 2020). A well-preserved early Holocene (6,669 ± 70 radiocarbon years BP [7,545 ± 515 cal BP; calibrated post hoc using http://calib.org/calib/, version 8.2]) skeleton of an Egyptian fruit bat (Rousettus aegyptiacus) was found in a cave in Yemen.…”