New data on the locations of mammoth fauna in the middle reaches of the Yana River (northeast Yakutia)

Abstract

The Yana River basin in the Yana-Indigirka Lowland is one of the richest regions of Yakutia in paleontological finds of animals representing the mammoth fauna with soft tissues. More than 130 years ago, a large collection of paleontological material was collected by the royal expedition led by A.A. Bunge and E.V. Toll (1885-1886), which is stored in the storerooms of the Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg. Previously known unique finds on the middle reaches of the Yana River included the Lena horse body fragment (2009), juvenile bison (2009), collared lemming (2012), and Verkhoyansk foal (2018) discovered at the Batagaika location. In 2023, during field work, paleontological and palynological material was collected at the main locations of the Yana River basin. New data on the quantitative and percentage ratio of mammoth fauna species at the Khaastaakh locality are presented, as well as some morphometric indicators for a fragmented fossil bison body. For a comprehensive study of the localities, various methods of paleogeographic reconstructions were used, including paleontological, palynological and radiocarbon analyses. These methods were aimed at identifying temporal patterns of variability of natural conditions at the Pleistocene-Holocene boundary. The results of the latest findings supplement the information on the distribution of representatives of the mammoth fauna in the territory of Yakutia in the late Pleistocene and Holocene.