Small Mammals from the Taurida Locality (Crimea, Pleistocene): Systematic Composition and Biochronology

The dominance of the voles Lagurodon arankae (Kretzoi, 1954) and Allophaiomys deucalion Kretzoi, 1969 in the Early Pleistocene small mammalian fauna from the main bone-bearing level of the Taurida cave (central Crimea) allows dating this faunal association to the beginning of the Calabrian (about 1.8–1.6 Ma), and correlating it to the Late Villafranchian and the MQ1 zone of the European mammal biochronological scale, the second half of the Psekupsian Faunal Assemblage, and the regional mammal zone MQR10 (Allophaiomys deucalion–Prolagurus ternopolitanus zone). The lower part of the cave deposits was found to contain components of the more ancient regional mammal zone MQR11 (Allophaiomys deucalion–Borsodia zone), which dates to the terminal Gelasian. Thus, the Early Pleistocene phase of the formation of the Taurida locality corresponds to the time interval of about 2.1–1.6 Ma. The cave deposits also yield remains of Middle Pleistocene small mammals dominated by the vole Microtus ex gr. arvalis (Pallas, 1778). The evolutionary level of these associations suggests an age of the mid Middle Pleistocene (about 0.5–0.3 Ma) and correlation with the regional mammal zone MQR3 (Arvicola mosbachensis–Lagurus transiens zone).