LATE PLEISTOCENE MESOFAUNA OF THE SOILS OF THE YANSK PLATEAU

DOI

10.24411/1728-323X-2018-15097

Section

Physical geography and biogeography, soil geography and landscape geochemistry

Title

LATE PLEISTOCENE MESOFAUNA OF THE SOILS OF THE YANSK PLATEAU

Сontributors

V.S. Bosekorov, candidate of Biological Sciences, Senior Researcher of the Research Institute of Applied Ecology of the North of the NEFU, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., Yakutsk, Russia

G.N. Savvinov, doctor of Biological Sciences, Director of the Research Institute of Applied Ecology of the North of the NEFU? This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., Yakutsk, Russia

Abstract

The insects of the Late Pleistocene mesofauna in fossil soils within the Yansky Plateau in the Ulakhan Suullar site (the right bank of the Adycha River) and the Batagayka Thermokarst Basin were studied. In field studies, a macro-entomological method has been successfully applied. It has great potential, and therefore, its wider introduction into research practice is needed. The article presents some dominant species of the Late Pleistocene communities: weevils (Curculionidae), pill beetles (Byrrhidae) and ground beetles (Carabidae). It has been established that the ecological proximity of the insect fossils discovered by us, indicates that the dry tundra-steppe (the dry tundra and steppe tundra) prevails in the Late Pleistocene environments, since the pill beetle Morychus viridis is a true tundra-steppe indicator. The analysis of national and foreign literature shows that the knowledge about the insects in Siberia, including Yakutia, is not comprehensive. It has been established that paleo-entomological findings provide the most reliable information when reconstructing the natural conditions of the past.

Keywords

fossil insects, paleoentomology, beetles, pills, weevils, the Late Pleistocene, reconstruction of climate and natural conditions.

References

1.                  Grushevskiy I.I., Medvedev L.N. Predvaritel'nye dannye primeneniya koleopterologicheskogo analiza dlya izucheniya kontinental'nyh otlozhenij Severnoj YAkutii. Sbornik statej po paleontologii i biostratigrafii NIIGA. [Preliminary data on the use of coleopterological analysis for the study of continental sediments of Northern Yakutia. Collection of articles on paleontology and biostratigraphy of NIIGA] 1962. No. 28. P. 38-42. [in Russian]

2.                  Kuzmina S. New approach to the Quaternary studies: QINSIB - the database of Siberian fossil insects. Quaternary International. 2014. Vol. 18. P. 283–293.

3.                  Kuzmina S., Sher A. Some features of the Holocene insect faunas of northeastern Siberia. Quaternary Science Reviews. 2006. Vol. 25. No. 15-16. P. 1790-1820.

4.                  Kuzmina S., Sher A., Edwards M., Haile J., Yan E., Kotov A., Willerslev E. The Late Pleistocene environment of the eastern West Beringia based on the principal section at the Main River, Chukotka. Quaternary Science Reviews. 2011. Vol. 30. P. 17-18.

5.                  Kuzmina S.A. Quaternary Insects and Environment of the Northeastern Asia. Ltd., Paleontological Journal Supplement. 2015. Vol. 49. No. 7. Pleiades Publishing. P. 1–189.