Vertebrates As Bioindicators of Climate Change

Abstract

The use of living organisms for stratigraphy or as bioindicators of the state of the environment has been known since the 19th century, but mainly for these studies the remains of invertebrate animals (in particular, molluscs) are used, and from vertebrates – mouse-like rodents. In the course of the work, certain species of vertebrates and invertebrates were selected, based on the presence of which in the material it is possible to reconstruct the climatic conditions in the historical past. Such information is very important for historians and archaeologists, since it allows them to better understand the living conditions of people in the historical past. The aim of our work is to identify species of vertebrates that are stenotopic in at least one factor and, on the basis of the findings of these species at archaeological sites, to make climatic reconstructions. Conclusions. To date, work on the identification of other indicator species continues, we have carried out reconstructions of the paleoclimate on the basis of osteological materials found in the excavations, and for a number of monuments we have compared the results with the data of paleobotanists and soil scientists from the same areas. The similarity of the obtained results is significant, which allows us to propose a method of reconstruction of paleoclimatic and paleoecological conditions based on the findings of the indicator species selected by us as effective. The most effective is a comprehensive study of osteological materials, taking into account the presence of the above-mentioned species in the material. In terms of time spent, the identification of zooarchaeological materials is a simpler and faster method than paleobotanical research, and the results are largely comparable. In addition, the same species can be used to model predictions of habitat changes due to climate change in the future.