Ecological Structure of Recent and Last Glacial Mammalian Faunas in Northern Eurasia: The Case of Altai-Sayan Refugium

摘要: Pleistocene mammalian communities display unique features which differ from present-day faunas. The paleocommunities were characterized by the extraordinarily large body size of herbivores and predators their structure consisting species now inhabiting geographically ecologically distinct natural zones. These probably result environmental conditions ice age ecosystems. To analyze ecological Last Glacial Recent mammal we classified into biome trophic-size categories, using Principal Component analysis. We found a marked similarity in between eastern Altai-Sayan assemblages comparable composition occurrence herbivore predator associated with steppe, desert alpine biomes. three modern biomes harbor most surviving mammals. None analyzed Palearctic faunas showed affinity to temperate forest, taiga, or tundra biome. Eastern part region could be considered refugium Glacial-like assemblages. fauna seems persist up present those areas where forest belt does not separate vegetation steppes deserts.