Multi‐disciplinary study of a late Pleistocene woolly rhinoceros found in the Pannonian Basin and implications for the contemporaneous palaeoenvironment

• DOI: 10.1002/jqs.3533
• Publication Date: 2023-06-14T10:12:10Z
• Authors: Mihály Gasparik; István Major; Zsuzsa Lisztes‐Szabó; Enikő Magyari; Bence Szabó; Luca Pandolfi; Antony Borel; István Futó; Anikó Horváth; Gabriella Ilona Kiss; Mihály Molnár; Attila Csík; András Markó
• Keywords: Rhinoceros

ABSTRACT Excavation campaigns conducted at the Pécel‐Kis hársas site (Hungary) between 2014 and 2017 yielded remains of a mature female woolly rhinoceros ( Coelodonta antiquitatis ) six lithic artefacts. Radiocarbon dating confirmed that died ca. 20.4k cal bp , very end Last Glacial Maximum and, considering position artefacts when found, it was probably killed by Epigravettian hunters. Based on dental analyses specimen, vigorous lichen‐ (and possibly moss‐)consuming diet could be inferred for animal's lifetime. Sr results, we can exclude possibility long‐range migration. In accordance with optimum environmental demands foraging lichen, low δ 18 O value osseous material implies relatively cold contemporaneous climate calculated mean annual air temperature around 0.7 °C. Meanwhile, extremely 15 N may have resulted from proximity discontinuous permafrost zone some intensive soil dislocation. Consequently, poor vegetation an open, tundra‐like habitat assumed to been dominant time, which is also supported palaeoenvironmental modeling experiments.