Reconstruction of paleoenvironment at the site Sellyakh, Yano-Indigirka lowland, Yakutia

Abstract

Data on the mammoth fauna of the Sellyakh site, located in Ust-Yansky Ulus, Republic of Sakha (Yakutia, Russian Federation) are presented. The site is characterized mainly by an aggregation of fossil remains of Mammuthus primigenius Blumenbach, 1799. Remains of other large mammals of the mammoth fauna are represented by a few finds representing three other species – Equus lenensis Russanov 1968, Bison sp., Coelodonta antiquitatis Blumenbach, 1799. Sixty-two bones from different parts of the skeletons of twenty woolly mammoths of different age were collected from the site. Data on the age and sex structure of the mammoths from the site are similar to the corresponding data on modern African elephants Loxodonta africana Blumenbach 1797. AMS dating of mammoth bones (Groningen University, the Netherlands) correspond to the end of Late Neopleistocene. All palaeo-environment reconstructions are based on the original specimens obtained during field work at the Sellyakh Site.

Keywords

• woolly mammoth mammuthus primigenius blumenbach 1799
• late neopleistocene
• sellyakh river
• age profile
• reconstruction of palaeo-environments
• pollen analysis