Caballoid horses and late Middle Pleistocene biostratigraphy of the British Isles

Over the last decades, researchers have become increasingly aware of the complexity of the Quaternary glacial - interglacial cycles. Correlation of continental sites with (sub)stages of the oxygen isotope record and with other sites has proven to be difficult. In order to be able to address questions that go beyond analysis of single sites it is necessary to have a rigid chronological framework. For the British Isles, a biostratigraphic framework has been developed for the late Middle Pleistocene, incorporating geological, faunal and floral evidence. For the mammalian faunas, in particular, each interglacial stage was shown to have a characteristic fauna. The caballoid horse lineage under-goes a size reduction and morphological changes over its temporal range. These trends are well-documented for the Late Pleistocene. For the late Middle Pleistocene, the picture is less clear, in part because it has proven difficult to date sites from this period relative to each other. The robust and generally accepted biostratigraphic scheme for the British Isles provides an opportunity to address the evolution of the caballoid horses in the late Middle Pleistocene.Ces dernières décennies, les chercheurs ont pris de plus en plus conscience de la complexité des cycles glaciaires et interglaciaires du Quaternaire. La corrélation des sites continentaux aux stades et sous‑stades de la courbe isotopique de l’oxygène et à d’autres gisements s’est révélée être difficile. Afin de pouvoir aller au-delà de l’analyse ponctuelle de sites uniques, il est nécessaire d’avoir un cadre chronologique rigoureux. Concernant les îles britanniques un cadre biostratigraphique a été développé pour le Pléistocène moyen récent, sur la base d’éléments relevant de la géologie, de la faune et de la flore. Pour les mammifères, en particulier, chaque interglaciaire est représenté par une faune caractéristique. La lignée des chevaux caballins voit sa taille se réduire et des changements morphologiques apparaître à travers le temps. Ces tendances sont bien documentées pour le Pléistocène récent. En revanche, pour le Pléistocène moyen récent, le schéma est moins précis, du fait de la datation relative difficile à appréhender entre les différents gisements. Le cadre biostratigraphique rigoureux et généralement bien accepté des îles britanniques fournit une opportunité pour mieux comprendre l’évolution des chevaux caballins lors du Pléistocène moyen récent

Relating dung fungal spore influx rates to animal density in a temperate environment: Implications for palaeoecological studies

The management of the remainder of Europe’s once extensive forests is hampered by a poor understanding of the character of the vegetation and drivers of change before the onset of clearance for farming. Pollen data indicate a closed-canopy, mixed-deciduous forest, contrasting with the assertion that large herbivores would have maintained a mosaic of open grassland, regenerating scrub and forested groves. Coprophilous fungal spores from sedimentary sequences are increasingly used as a proxy for past herbivore impact on vegetation, but the method faces methodological and taphonomical issues. Using pollen trap data from a long-running experiment in Chillingham Wild Cattle Park, UK, we investigate the first steps in the mechanisms connecting herbivore density to the incorporation of fungal spores in sediments and assess the effects of environmental variables on this relationship. Herbivore utilisation levels correlate with dung fungal spore abundance. Chillingham is densely populated by large herbivores, but dung fungal spore influx is low. Herbivores may thus be present on the landscape but go undetected. The absence of dung fungal spores is therefore less informative than their presence. Dung fungal spores likely enter the sediment record through a different pathway from wind-borne pollen and thus dung fungal abundance is better expressed as influx rates than as percentage of total pollen. Landscape openness, vegetation type and site wetness do not distort the impact of utilisation levels on dung fungal spore representation. However, dung fungal spore influx varies markedly between seasons and years. Spores travel, leading to a background level of spore deposition across the landscape, and at times a depletion of spores, especially under wet weather conditions. Animal behaviour, as well as husbandry practices, can lead to the accumulation of dung, and thus fungal spores, in specific locations on the landscape that do not directly reflect grazing pressure

Multi-proxy evidence for woodland clearance in northeast Northumberland (England) during the Iron Age

Pollen diagrams covering the Bronze Age to Roman period from northeast Northumberland are scarce. We present a 14C-dated pollen record from a peat-filled forest hollow in Chillingham Wild Cattle Park, northeast Northumberland, that spans the Iron Age. For the first time for this part of Northumberland, fungal spores are also analysed to investigate whether clearances took place in the context of crop cultivation or pastoralism. The pollen diagram shows significant woodland cover during the Late Bronze Age, with small-scale landscape openness potentially representing crop cultivation and animal grazing under a tree canopy. A local clearance event, with arboreal pollen falling to 13.2%, is radiocarbon dated to the late Early to Middle Iron Age, likely coinciding with the construction and occupancy of the nearby Ros Castle hillfort. A significant rise in dung fungal spores and the presence of Plantago and other open vegetation taxa indicate animal husbandry played an important role in this clearance phase. A subsequent large decrease in dung fungi and a small rise in arboreal pollen may reflect a degree of abandonment of the area after the climate cooled. Peat formation ceased in the late Middle to Late Iron Age as the hollow filled up. Limited renewed peat growth occurred in the last century or so, after peat shrinkage due to drying and consequent oxidation provided the possibility for renewed peat formation within the hollow

Sequential biomolecular, macrofossil, and microfossil extraction from coprolites for reconstructing past behavior and environments

The study of macroscopic, microscopic, and biomolecular remains recovered from coprolites can provide a wide range of information on past human and animal behavior and environments. In earlier studies, research tended to focus on one or two proxies, but multiproxy approaches combining data from all remains within coprolites are becoming more common. Multiproxy analyses have demonstrated value for strengthening our understanding of the past and reducing equifinality. Here we present a sequential biomolecular, macrofossil, and microfossil extraction protocol that separates all different coprolite components and is intended as a best-practice guideline for coprolite analysis. We demonstrate the effectiveness of this method by applying it to an assemblage of coprolites from the Paisley Caves, Oregon, USA. By combining a wide range of proxies, this study provides important information on the taxonomy and behavior of organisms in the past as well as the paleoecological context of behavior

Dietary traits of the late Early Pleistocene Bison menneri (Bovidae, Mammalia) from its type site Untermassfeld (Central Germany) and the problem of Pleistocene ‘wood bison’

Over the course of the Early and early Middle Pleistocene, a climatic cooling trend led to the partial opening up of landscapes in the western Palaearctic. This led to a gradual replacement of browsers by grazers, whilst some herbivore species shifted their diet towards including more grass. Wear patterns of herbivore cheek teeth can inform our understanding of the timing and extent of this change and indicate levels of dietary plasticity. One of the indicator species of the faunal turnover is the first large-sized form of bison in the Palaearctic, Bison menneri. The dental mesowear of the palaeopopulation from the species' late Early Pleistocene type site of Untermassfeld in Central Germany and the Late Pleistocene B. priscus from Taubach, both from habitat mosaics of forested habitats and more open landscapes, have a mixed feeder profile similar to that of North American wood bison, which has a distinct preference for open habitats but occasionally consumes a high amount of browse as a fall-back food. In contrast, the grazer mesowear signature of early Middle Pleistocene B. schoetensacki voigtstedtensis from Voigtstedt indicates these animals likely did not regularly feed in the densely forested area around the site. The mesowear of B. schoetensacki from Süssenborn, in a more open environment, is similar to that of extant European bison. Both Pleistocene and extant bison are grazers to mixed feeders with relatively high tolerance of a suboptimal browsing diet. None of these species can be regarded as true ‘wood bison’