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The paper describes the bone animal remains from the excavations of the mansion of Balandins merchants, which reflect the economic culture of the Russian population of the Yeniseisk in the 17th – 19th centuries. The analysis of species composition and ratio of animal remains were carried out, and methods for cutting and utilization of domestic animal carcasses were described. It is shown that maintenance of livestock and poultry was the basis of the economy among the population of Yeniseisk. Cattle played the leading role for the town population. Significantly less the population bred pigs and chickens, as well as keep (or bought) goats and sheep. Hunting and fishing took place, but did not play a large role in the life of the population. Roe deer was the main game animal in the vicinity of the town. The owners of the mansion hunted boron game and waterfowl. Siberian sturgeon, nelma and taimen were the main objects of fishing in the population of Yeniseisk.

The present work describes the dentognathic remains of Ursus etruscus Cuvier, 1823 from the recently discovered Taurida cave in central Crimea at the north Black Sea area. The bone-bearing layer of Taurida cave corresponds to the Psekupsian Faunal Assemblage of Eastern Europe and to the Late Villafranchian of Western Europe (ca. 1.8–1.5 Ma). Here, we describe unpublished ursid material unearthed during the excavations performed at the cave in 2020–2021, further comparing it with coeval chronologic and geographic sites around Europe. Our anatomical and biometrical analyses suggest the inclusion of the studied specimens in the hypodigm of the Early Pleistocene medium-sized species Ursus etruscus. The finds of the U. etruscus from the southern part of Eastern Europe provide a link between the western and eastern parts of the species range. Therefore, the finds from Crimea are important for understanding of the morphological diversity and evolution of U. etruscus which is the putative ancestor of both cave bears and brown bears. Furthermore, the study of these remains is also important for understanding the processes of the forming of the large mammal assemblages in the late Early Pleistocene and its relationships with the dispersal of the genus Homo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the rich vertebrate fauna of Imanay Cave the abundant material of the small-sized cave bears was originally assigned to the taxon Ursus savini. Teeth and metapodials of statistical amounts were compared with other cave bear faunas and the taxonomic position was determined through morphological and metric analyses. The size of teeth and metapodial bones is significantly smaller in Imanay Cave bears compared to the typical U. deningeri from Mosbach and Hundsheim. Although the teeth are smaller, they reached higher evolutionary level than those from Mosbach or Hundsheim.The bear remains from Imanay Cave show great similarities to the fossils from Kizel Cave in the Ural Mountains described as Ursus rossicus Borissiak, 1930 but also to the remains of small-bodied cave bears of the Alps described as Ursus deningeroides Mottl, 1964. Remarkable are the differences in size of the front dentition: the incisors from Imanay Cave are on average >10% longer and wider than the corresponding teeth from U. deningeroides but also wider than the classic U. deningeri. Preliminary carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analyses suggest that the small cave bears from Imanay Cave were herbivorous. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present work describes for a first time a fused fracture of the metacarpals of the medium-sized felid, Lynx issiodorensis, the putative ancestor of all Eurasian extant lynx species. The studied remains, four metacarpals from the same individual, were unearthed from the Early Pleistocene of the Taurida cave (Crimean Peninsula) and studied through computed tomography. These remains exhibit pronounced signs of osteopathology, namely, fracture with displacement of the fifth metacarpal bone fused with the formation of callus and deformation of the bone itself. The pathological process is spread to adjacent metacarpal bones. The likely cause of the injury could be an unsuccessful hunt or an awkward landing from a height. After the injury and in the process of healing the fracture, the studied individual survived with clearly limited hunting abilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]