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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]

In the Late Pleistocene the formation of the Scandinavian Ice Sheet (SIS) caused a wide periglacial zone in Europe. The effects of environmental conditions in the periglacial zone on small mammal assemblages have not yet been studied in detail on a European scale during maximum extension of the SIS. In this study, the impact of the SIS on the qualitative/quantitative composition of European small mammal local faunas (LFs) was studied for the GS-2.1 (∼22.9–17.48 a b2k, final of the Last Glacial Maximum). We analysed 55 LFs between 0°E and 55°E and between 45°N and 55°N and proved that the variations in their compositions contained information about spatial variation in environmental/geographical variables, including distance from the putative edge of the SIS and the shoreline of the Atlantic Ocean and, to a lesser extent, the altitudes of localities. Based on various criteria, we concluded that the impact of the SIS on the spatial variability of compositions of LSs was not as significant as the effects of air masses over the Atlantic Ocean, but more important than altitude above sea level. It was most probable that the impact of the SIS, considered independently of the Atlantic Ocean, contributed in part to a latitudinal gradient of the mean annual temperature formation, while the Atlantic Ocean air masses predominantly shaped a sectoral west-east gradient of temperature and precipitation. We compared the geographic patterns of compositions of species belonging to LFs in the past and present and concluded that the effect of the Atlantic air masses is the main physical factor that forms the spatial pattern in modern European small mammals and that a similar impact prevailed during the GS-2.1. Qualitative and quantitative differences in the distribution of small mammal species in LFs and in diversity indices between the GS-2.1 and the present time were investigated. We concluded that it is possible that in the GS-2.1 narrow/fragmented ranges dominated, whereas in the Holocene the proportion of small mammal species with wide ranges and intrazonal species increased significantly in the composition of faunas. Additional evidence is provided to support the hypothesis of the existence of the "Carpathian refuge". In the GS-2.1 we attributed the lack of correlation between species richness with mean annual temperature and precipitation. A spatial mosaic of glacial/cryptic refuges conceals a positive correlation between species richness and distance from the putative edge of the SIS. In addition, we described the responses of some common and indicator species to variations in environmental variables. • The effect of SIS on a spatial pattern of LFs was not as significant as expected. • Species richness not determined by a climate pattern around the SIS in the GS.2.1. • Mosaic of glacial refuges had a specific spatial pattern in the periglacial zone. • Atlantic air masses is the main factor forms a spatial pattern of LFs in Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]