The differences in ecological structure between Altai-Sayan and North Yakutia faunas.

<p>Comparison of the proportion of species assigned to biome (a) and trophic-size (b) categories between the regions.</p

Projection scores of trophic-size community structure (PCA).

<p>The first two axes describe 63.4% of variance. Open circles – Recent assemblages; crossed circles – Recent eastern Altai assemblages; full circles – Last Glacial assemblages.</p

Ecological Structure of Recent and Last Glacial Mammalian Faunas in Northern Eurasia: The Case of Altai-Sayan Refugium

<div><p>Pleistocene mammalian communities display unique features which differ from present-day faunas. The paleocommunities were characterized by the extraordinarily large body size of herbivores and predators and by their unique structure consisting of species now inhabiting geographically and ecologically distinct natural zones. These features were probably the result of the unique environmental conditions of ice age ecosystems. To analyze the ecological structure of Last Glacial and Recent mammal communities we classified the species into biome and trophic-size categories, using Principal Component analysis. We found a marked similarity in ecological structure between Recent eastern Altai-Sayan mammalian assemblages and comparable Pleistocene faunas. The composition of Last Glacial and Recent eastern Altai-Sayan assemblages were characterized by the occurrence of large herbivore and predator species associated with steppe, desert and alpine biomes. These three modern biomes harbor most of the surviving Pleistocene mammals. None of the analyzed Palearctic Last Glacial faunas showed affinity to the temperate forest, taiga, or tundra biome. The Eastern part of the Altai-Sayan region could be considered a refugium of the Last Glacial-like mammalian assemblages. Glacial fauna seems to persist up to present in those areas where the forest belt does not separate alpine vegetation from the steppes and deserts.</p></div

Location map of Recent and Pleistocene Palearctic localities used in the analyses.

<p>Abbreviations: B. R. - Biosphere Reserve; P. A. - Protected Area; Mts. - mountains</p

Projection scores of mammalian communities for studied localities (PCA).

<p>Species were classified according to their presence in a particular biome. The first two axes describe 89.8% of variance. Open circles – Recent assemblages; crossed circles – Recent eastern Altai assemblages; full circles – Last Glacial assemblages</p

Skulls of adult males of <i>Ceratotherium simum</i> (above) and <i>C. cottoni</i> (below).

<p>Upper photo from Heller (1914, plate 17, <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0009703#pone-0009703-g003" target="_blank">fig. 3</a>), lower photo by E. Trumler of skull in Zoologische Staatssammlung, Munich.</p

<i>Ceratotherium simum</i>.

<p>Left, Dan, male aged 40 years. Right, Zamba, female aged 37 years. Both, Usti nad Labem. Photos, Jan Robovsky.</p

Observed Sequence Divergence (Uncorrected p) in the Analyzed Fragments.

<p>Observed Sequence Divergence (Uncorrected p) in the Analyzed Fragments.</p

Maxillary toothrows of adult male <i>Ceratotherium simum</i> (left) and <i>C. cottoni</i> (second from left), and adult female <i>C.simum</i> (centre) and <i>C.cottoni</i> (second from right and right), from Heller (1913, plates 21:4, 21:2, 22:4, 21:1 and 22:3, respectively).

<p>Maxillary toothrows of adult male <i>Ceratotherium simum</i> (left) and <i>C. cottoni</i> (second from left), and adult female <i>C.simum</i> (centre) and <i>C.cottoni</i> (second from right and right), from Heller (1913, plates 21:4, 21:2, 22:4, 21:1 and 22:3, respectively).</p

Standardized Canonical Discriminant Function Coefficients for Figure 7.

<p>Standardized Canonical Discriminant Function Coefficients for <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0009703#pone-0009703-g007" target="_blank">Figure 7</a>.</p