European small mammal faunas during Dnieper (Saale) glaciation and transition to the Mikulino (Eem) interglacial

Abstract An analysis of voluminous data on the European fossil small mammals datable to the Dnieper (Saale) Glaciation (MIS 6) allowed establishing the main characteristics of the species composition in the faunas, their distribution and diversity. As is shown by the analysis, the faunas of small mammal underwent cardinal changes within the subcontinent boundaries at that time, with the exception of the faunas of the southern peninsulas. Some subarctic species are proved to penetrate southwards as far as 48° N in Western Europe and up to southern France and the British Isles in Western Europe. The steppe species enlarged their ranges to the east and to the west (up to the British Isles). This fact suggests the disappearance of the continuous forest zone. Occasional forest mammal species persisted in Eastern Europe; in most localities of Western Europe, however, forest mammal remains are present along with those of steppe and subarctic mammals. A structural stability of mammal faunas was preserved on the southern peninsulas that had not been heavily influenced by the glaciation. The transition to the Mikulino (Eem) Interglacial (MIS 5e) was marked by changes in the structure of mammal assemblages on the subcontinent. The ranges of subarctic mammal species shifted northwards, the forest zone was restored gradually, which was served to the restoration of forest species populations. Steppe species ranges shifted to the east of Europe. Unlike the faunas of the Dnieper (Saale) Glaciation, noted for “mixed” composition of mammals belonging to ecologically different groups, the faunas of Mikulino (Eem) Interglacial acquired the zonal structure approximately. The paper was primarily aimed at estimating general regularities in the small mammal fauna distribution beginning from the level of individual species to regional faunal complexes. We concluded that the small mammal fauna of the late Dnieper (Saale) ice age responded to the Mikulian/Eemian warming in a way not unlike the Late Pleistocene “Mammuthus–Coelodonta Faunal Complex” response to the Holocene warming, though with a lesser loss of the species richness.