V príspevku smo podali zgodovinski pregled raziskav jam Bele vode nad Gorenjo Trebušo in Smoganica nad Mostom na Soči. S preučitvijo fosilnega gradiva iz jame Bele vode smo ovrednotili prvotno ...studijo določitve vrste jamskega medveda iz leta 1895 ter taksonomsko opredelili nove najdbe ostankov jamskih medvedov in navadnega jelena. V jami Smoganica smo poleg kosti jamskega medveda potrdili tudi prisotnost fosilnih ostankov tura ali bizona in konja. Primerjalno smo analizirali tudi možnost nastanka lezij na najdenih kosteh, ki po obliki in glede podobne razporeditve po značilnem vzorcu 1 + 2 spominjajo na luknje, odkrite na kosti s paleolitskega najdišča Divje babe I, in potrdili domnevo, da so nastale kot posledica grizenja jamskega medveda.
Cave bears (Ursus spelaeus) existed in Europe and western Asia until the end of the last glaciation some 10,000 years ago. To investigate the genetic diversity, population history, and relationship ...among different cave bear populations, we have determined mitochondrial DNA sequences from 12 cave bears that range in age from about 26,500 to at least 49,000 years and originate from nine caves. The samples include one individual from the type specimen population, as well as two small-sized high-Alpine bears. The results show that about 49,000 years ago, the mtDNA diversity among cave bears was about 1.8-fold lower than the current species-wide diversity of brown bears (Ursus arctos). However, the current brown bear mtDNA gene pool consists of three clades, and cave bear mtDNA diversity is similar to the diversity observed within each of these clades. The results also show that geographically separated populations of the high-Alpine cave bear form were polyphyletic with respect to their mtDNA. This suggests that small size may have been an ancestral trait in cave bears and that large size evolved at least twice independently.
Detailed studies of cave sediments in the Divje babe I cave, in western Slovenia, have revealed both fossil hairs and the imprints of such hairs present within phosphate aggregates in the clastic ...sediments. These aggregates consist of fine rock and bone fragments, as well as hairs cemented by phosphate precipitated from pore water. The hairs and their imprints were discovered by means of scanning electron microscopy and are likely to have belonged to cave bears, which were the most frequent inhabitants of this cave. From X-ray micro-computed tomography showing the spatial distribution of the hair imprints, and their number, it appears that the hairs did not belong to one particular animal which died at the location where the samples were collected, rather the hairs probably accumulated on the floor of the cave not only from cadavers, but also because hairs were shed during the hibernation of bears and their visits to the cave.
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46.
Križna jama Pacher, Martina; Rabeder, Gernot; Pohar, Vida
10/2014
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During 1999 and 2001 re-excavations in Križna jama were carried out, which brought crucial results concerning the taxonomical and stratigraphical position of the fossil taphocoenosis, especially of ...cave bears, and on their ethology. Moreover new data on the hydrological structure of the cave as well as on its sedimentology were published. A substantial part of this volume is dedicated to the extant fauna of this cave, which is extraordinary rich in species.
Nachgrabungen in den Jahren 1999 und 2001 brachten nicht nur wesentliche Erkenntnisse über die taxonomische und chronologische Stellung der fossilen Höhlenfauna und ihrer Lebensweise der Höhlenbären sondern auch neue Daten für die Entstehungsgeschichte der Höhle (Speläogenese), vom Verlauf der ober- und unterirdischen Gewässer (Hydrogeologie) sowie von der Sedimentologie der fossilführenden Sedimente. Ein ausführliche Artikel ist auch der überaus artenreichen rezenten Höhlenfauna gewidmet.
Remains of 13 individuals with 3/1 male/female ratio of the extinct Upper Pleistocene lion Panthera leo spelaea (Goldfuss, 1810) from the Zoolithen Cave near Burggeilenreuth (Bavaria, Germany) ...include the holotype skull and all paratype material. The highest mortality rate for the Zoolithen Cave lions is in their reproductive adult ages. Bite marks on lion bones or skulls are results of hyena activities, or rare cannibalism of lions under stress situations. Lions were possibly also killed in battles with cave bears during predation on hibernating bears in winter times. This cave bear hunt specialisation in caves overlaps with the ecological behaviour of cave bear feeding by Ice Age-spotted hyenas. Both largest Ice Age predators, lions and hyenas, had to specialise on feeding herbivorous cave bears in boreal forest mountainous cave rich regions, where the mammoth steppe megafauna prey was absent. This cave bear hunt by felids, and scavenging by hyenas and other large carnivores such as leopards and wolves explains why cave bears hibernated deep in to the European caves, for protection reasons against predators. Within such lion-cave bear and even lion-hyena conflicts in the caves lions must have been killed sometimes, explaining mainly the skeleton occurrences in different European caves.
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Due to the large number and visible morphological variability ofskeletal parts of the Early Pleistocene micromammals and UpperPleistocene ursids we utilised morphometric, morphogenetic and ...statisticalanalyses in order to determine and process the material. Theresults indicate rapid microevolutionary processes which arc reflectedboth in variations of the characteristic parameters of particular skeletalparts, and their morphology.The Early Pleistocene age of the bone-breccias discovered alongthe Adriatic coast was confirmed by the morphogenetic analyses ofmicromammals, with reference to geochronologically important arvicolids: the fauna from Razvode near Knin comprises arvieolids characteristicof the Lower Early Pleistocene, the fauna from Tatinja draganear Karlobag comprises species typical for the Middle EarlyPleistocene, while the fauna from Podumci near Unišić is of LateEarly Pleistocene age.The results of the analyses of teeth and metapodial bones of thecave bears from the Upper Pleistocene deposits in Vindija cave, Velikapećina and Veternica cave (NW Croatia) are expressed as morphodynamicindices, namely, the frequency of the morphotypes occurrenceindicates the existence of an interermediate type (?subspecies)within the phyletic lineage Ursus deningeri - Ursus spelaeus, whichappeared during the Riss glacial and Riss/Wuerm interglacial, and alack of deposits of that particular age in Veternica cave and Velikapećina.
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During 1999 and 2001 re-excavations in Križna jama were carried out, which brought crucial results concerning the taxonomical and stratigraphical position of the fossil taphocoenosis, especially of ...cave bears, and on their ethology. Moreover new data on the hydrological structure of the cave as well as on its sedimentology were published. A substantial part of this volume is dedicated to the extant fauna of this cave, which is extraordinary rich in species.
This paper presents a preliminary investigation of late Pleistocene cave bear traces from Urşilor Cave in the western Carpathians, Romania. The bears left thousands of traces on the walls, plateaus, ...and slopes of the cave interior. Some areas in the cave have been heavily trampled, leaving more than 140 hibernation beds as well as fur impressions. The footprints of cave bears are assigned to Ursichnus europaeus nov. ichnogen. and nov. ichnosp. and the cave bear-beds to Ursalveolus carpathicus nov. ichnogen. and nov. ichnosp. as behavioral traces. Tens of thousands of scratch marks on the slopes and top of a clay plateau are the result of bears moving from the hibernation area down to a stream and back. These traces reveal that the cave bears had short claws, similar to those of modern, primarily herbivorous black bears. Deep within the cave, three weathered, articulated cave bear skeletons still lie in their hibernation beds on the clay plateaus or a natural cave corner. One of these bears was a one-year-old male cub that did not survive its first hibernation; a second skeleton close was an adult female. The third, a young male, was found close to the end of the cave system. The bears of Urşilor Cave would have felt well protected against carnivores during their hibernation because their sleeping places were so deep within the cave. Their strategy may well have been to avoid any conflict with hyenas and lions during hibernation.
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