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Cementum and dentine increment analysis was used for the first time to study the remains of cave bears from European Russia, the Urals and the Caucasus. This study analysed 12 canines belonging to 12 different individuals (five males and seven females) from genetically different lineages of cave bears. The increment analysis showed that all studied cave bears belong to the categories adults and old animals (from 10 to 32.5 years). The enamel crowns of all 12 canines were broken and/or had wear facets. Seven canines studied were severely broken (more than one‐third of a canine crown missing). Significant damage to dental crowns may indicate old age, conflict between males and/or high food abrasion. The absence of significant differences in the extent of canine breakage between the youngest and the oldest animals, as well as between the males and the females, may indicate a significant role of food abrasiveness in the process of the grinding of canines. Until now, the question of whether these animals visited caves year‐round or stayed there mainly for overwintering remained open. The increment analysis showed different seasons of the bears' death. Six individuals died in the warm season and four individuals died in the cold season. In all of the studied caves (excluding Medvezhiya Cave) the animals died in the warm season as well as in the cold season. All of the studied females perished either during the cold season or at the very beginning of the warm season. On the contrary, almost all of the examined males perished in the warm season. Thus, the cave bears visited the caves year‐round. This study raises new questions in the study of the ecology of cave bears from different parts of their range. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the Biya River valley flowing from Lake Teletskoye, geomorphic and sedimentological evidence of a catastrophic debris flow has been found and assigned to glacier retreat after the last glacial maximum. Here, we report the results of lithological analysis of three sedimentary sections along Lake Teletskoye–the Biya River valley system and optically stimulated luminescence dating of key stratigraphic units that led to a revised model for the geomorphic history of the region. Maximal glacier advance is suggested to have occurred during MIS 4–early MIS 3. It was accompanied by the damming of tributary valleys by ice, by terminal and side moraines, and by the accelerated aggradation of the trunk valley below the glacier front. Formation of Lake Teletskoye, which followed the glacier retreat, occurred between 35 and 40 ka BP, most probably around 37.5 ka BP. Lake formation was shortly followed by a break in the moraine dam, catastrophic debris flow, rapid valley incision, and reduction in the lake level by ~100 m. Subsequently, incision has proceeded at a much lower rate and produced valley deepening and lake lowering of 30–35 m in the last 35–40 ka, or 0.8–0.9 m per thousand years on average. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Recent investigations have produced a group of important new Mousterian sites in the NW Caucasus (Russia). These sites, which range in elevation from 100 to 1350 m above sea level, include Il'skaya 11(100 m), Matuzka Cave (750 m), Barakaevskaya Cave (900 m), and Mezmaiskaya Cave (1350 m). Each contains a large faunal assemblage that, in conjunction with faunal remains excavated earlier from Il'skaya I (100 m) and Dakhovskaya Cave (500 m), constitute a rich source of information on Mousterian paleoecology in this part of Europe. Sites at lower elevations yield remains of mammoths and giant deer; at higher elevations, these taxa are absent but goats and sheep are common. Steppe bison is the most common species in a majority of assemblages, and bone modification and demographic data indicate that it was probably hunted (as opposed to scavenged) by Mousterian groups. Cave bear remains exhibit an inverse relationship to artifacts, and most probably reflect natural mortality. The economic role of mammoths is problematic; many bones and tusks may have been scavenged or collected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: For a long time, “spelaeoid” (cave-bear-like) bears, Ursus (Spelearctos) spp., were believed to be almost purely European animals. Their geographic range has recently been extended to the east, in southern Siberia, Transbaikalia, Kirghizia, Mongolia and Korea. Two unexpected new findings, presented here in detail, significantly change existing views on the distribution of cave bears; both were found in North-Eastern Siberia, far beyond the Arctic Circle, more than 1500 km to the north-east of the previously accepted range. One of the fossils is a mandible, found near the town of Cherskiy at 68.73°N, 161.38°E. The analysis of local geology and accompanying mammal fossils suggests that it comes from the Olyorian Fauna (Early to early Middle Pleistocene). Morphologically, the Cherskiy mandible is closest to Ursus savini, a small middle Pleistocene cave bear from the British Cromer Forest-bed Formation, but differs in having a slightly more advanced dentition, and thus it is described as a new subspecies Ursus savini nordostensis. Another newly recognized fossil of the “spelaeoid” bear is an astragalus found at the Oskhordokh site at 67.54°N, 135.67°E, on a large gravel bar on the right bank of the Adycha River. This specimen is attributed to Ursus cf. deningeri. The paper also presents an interesting example of the interaction between classical and “molecular” palaeontology. The new finds significantly change existing ideas on the ecology and evolution of cave bears, some of the most remarkable members of the extinct Pleistocene megafauna. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]