Abstract
Caves are among the best terrestrial archives providing valuable information on the chronology and the palaeoecology of Quaternary fossil and extant populations. The study of fossil vertebrate remains found in caves allows us to understand the anatomy of extinct animals, to infer their ethology, and to assess the composition and the size variability of fossil vertebrate communities. Moreover, such studies enable the reconstruction of changing environments and climates. The context in which bones occur is important for assessing the significance of finds. Strictly speaking, the analysis of the context in which a thanatocoenosis „forms and evolves”, is the main goal of cave taphonomy. I here present a study on the taphonomy of Late Pleistocene (MIS 3) cave bear finds from a cave in Romania.
At CEES I am currently working on the EvoCave project as postdoctoral palaeontologist, having the opportunity to assess the palaeoecology of the fossil bone assemblage from the northernmost situated cave site from Eurasia, bearing fossils from MIS 5e-2 period.
Speaker
Marius Robu
Zoom
This talk will also be available on Zoom. The zoom link will be shared through the CEES seminar mailing list.