Late Quaternary shrews (Soricomorpha: Soricidae) from Priamurye (Russian Far East) according to data from Koridornaya Cave: species diversity and stratigraphical aspects

Abstract

During excavations at Koridornaya Cave (Pompeevskiy Ridge, Russian Far East) in 2017–2018 numerous skeletal elements of late Quaternary mammals were recovered for the first time in Priamurye. The aim of this work is to determine the shrew (Soricidae) species and to estimate their abundance. In the deposits of Koridornaya Cave, 890 cranial remains of shrews were found belonging to 10 species from genera: Sorex, Neomys, Beremendia, and Crocidura. The formation period of the deposits is determined as the Last Glacial Interstadial (MIS 3), and the upper part of the deposits contains also Holocene (MIS 1) components. The studied Late Pleistocene communities of shrews of the Pompeevskiy Ridge included modern inhabitants of this territory (S. caecutiens, S. isodon, S. unguiculatus, S. daphaenodon, S. roboratus, S. minutissimus, N. fodiens, and C. lasiura) and S. tundrensis; C. ex gr. suaveolens appeared in the Holocene. Sorex gracillimus, which currently lives here, was not recorded either because it was absent during the time of deposition of the fauna or it was extremely rare. Because of remaining uncertainties, within the framework of this study, B. minor is not considered a part of the Late Pleistocene fauna of Far Eastern shrews. The dominant species in the shrew communities in the Last Glacial Interstadial at the Pompeevskiy Ridge was S. caecutiens, just as in the shrew communities during Late Pleistocene to Holocene in the southern Sikhote-Alin Mountains and in most of modern shrew communities in the south of the Russian Far East.