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Numerous small mammal localities assigned to the beginning of the Late Middle Pleistocene (Holstein, Likhvin, Hoxne Interglacial) were discovered in Europe during the last years. The stratigraphical position of a number of these faunas and the regional differences are discussed in the paper. The new Likhvin small mammal locality Rybnaya Sloboda (Lower Kama basin, Volga basin, Russia) is the easternmost site of this age in Europe. The rich fauna was discovered in fluvial deposits of the 3rd terrace (III) of the Kama River; sediments that are covered by loess deposits with a series of paleosols. The Rybnaya Sloboda fauna includes 16 species of insectivores, lagomorphs and rodents. Remains of the archaic water vole Arvicola cantianus and the Middle Pleistocene steppe lemming Lagurus transiens dominate the fossils assemblage. The evolutional level of the Arvicolinae remains permits the assignment to the Gun'kovian small mammal assemblage and a correlation with the Likhvin Interglacial (MIS 11) (∼424–374 ka BP). The ecological features of the small mammal assemblage indicate a forest-steppe landscape in the lower Kama basin during MIS 11. The comparison with, and the analysis of numerous European Likhvin (= Holsteinian, = Hoxnian) small mammal faunas indicate a geographical biozonation that shows similarities with the biozonation reconstructed for the Eemian (= Mikulino, MIS 5e) Interglacial. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The analysis of small mammal and freshwater mollusk remains from the fluvial deposits of VI terrace of Dniester R. in Levada section (Moldova, Transnistria) revealed the main characteristic of species composition and evolutionary level of these remains and permitted their placement in the stratigraphic scale of Middle Pleistocene faunas of Eastern Europe. The Levada fauna corresponds to the same stage as the fauna from the fluvial deposits of VI terrace of Dniester in stratotype of Tiraspolian faunistic complex in Kolkotova Balka section. These faunas existed between the Early Tiraspolian faunas which correlate to the second part of MIS 19 and with MIS 18, and the Late Tiraspolian (MIS 16 and MIS 15). Mimomys savini, Lagurus transiens, Microtus (Terricola) arvalidens, Lasiopodomys (Stenocranius) gregaloides are the species most characteristic of these faunas. The Levada fauna reflects interglacial climate conditions. The faunas of this evolutionary level existed during the second part of the Iliinskian Interglacial of the Russian Plain and during the Cromer Interglacial 2 of West Europe. The freshwater mollusks from Levada section (Viviparus tiraspolitanus Pavl., V. subcrasus Lung., Lithoglyphus naticoides C. Pf. and others) reflects a warm climate close to that of the Mediterranean. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]