The Research On The Fauna And Ancient Ecological Environment Of The Late Pleistocene In Jinsitai Cave Site

The paper preliminarily studies the animal bones from the Jinsitai cave site, which belongs to the late palaeolithic period, and the cave site includes 3 major layers of Pleistocene: upper, middle, lower palaeolithic cutural layers. A lot of animal bones had been excavated in 2000 and 2001 respectively. In order to reconstruct the environment at that time, the author identified the animal bones carefully. Jinsitai's animal fauna includes 2 main classes: Aves and Mammalia . The bones of the Aves are less, because many of them have been badly preserved, only some bone fragements left. For lack of contrastive samples and comparative database, not all the bones could be identified to genera or species. Mammalia includes 14 genera, 15 species:Myospalax aspalax (Pallas .1776)M. bobak MullerC. lupus LinnaeusU. cf .spelaeus BlumenbachCrocuta ultima Matsumoto Gulo sp.Coelodonta antiquitatis (Blumenbach, 1799)Equus przewalsyi PoliakovE. hemionus PallasSus scrofa LinnaeusCervus elaphus LinnaeusGazella przewalskyi BuchnerPachygazella Teilhard et YoungSpirocerus Doule etTeilhardBison LinnaeusTherein these animal bones are not the same in different strata, on the foundation of formal examination, the author regarded the animal bones from the 7 & 8 two layers as the lower layer materials, the 5 & 6 two layers as the middle layer materials, and the 3 & 4 two layers as the upper layer materials. So we can notice that the animal assemblage are different in the strata.Animals in lower layer are mainly large mammalia: E. przewalskyi Poliakov, Coelodonta antiquitatis ( Blumenbach, 1799), E. hemionus Pallas, Bison Linnaeus, Crocuta ultima Matsumoto, etc.In the middle layer, besides retainning early large mammal, some new species appeared, they are: Pachygazella Teilhard & Young , Gazella przewalskyi Buchner , Ursus. cf .spelaeus Blumenbach , Canis lupus Linnaeus , Gulo sp., etc. The quantity of the inherent large mammals increased .In the upper layer, the rest of the early species still existed but the quantity reached the top in layer 4, and then became less in layer 3. The Marmota bobak Muller appeared in the middle layer as the most abundant species in quantity. So we preliminarily estimate the human's ability of hunting at that time had been improved . They could gain the large animals as well as the small ones which lived underground. As the foundation of hunting ability elevated, the human population might increase. So the demand of consumption of meat might also increase. Though the large animals of the middle period still existed but the quantity got less. To some extent, human must catch or hunt the small mammals such as Marmota bobak Muller as the supplement of meat resources or for some special purposes.The author also researched the marks on the animal bones came from different layers carefully. Accordmg to the different actions on the bones, the marks can be divided into three main classes:1. Natural marks: the marks formed in the process of the sedimentation and weathering.2. Marks made by animals: thin parallel tooth marks formed by the gnawing action of rodent with their incisors.3. Artificial marks: they can be divided into 6 small groups according to the different patterns of behavior.(1) Cutting or scratching marks(2) Slashing marks(3) Polishing scratch marks(4) Barbecue marks (5) Biting marks(6) Tamping marksCrocuta ultima Matsumoto, Equus przewalskii Poliakov, E. hemionus Pallas, Coelodonta antiquitatis, etc. They are all the classical animals of the late Pleistocene fauna in China, therefore the Jinsitai cave site's faunistic geological period should be supposed to be the late Pleistocene. The faunistic character is that perissodactyla' animal are the most, which reflects the environment of grassland around the cave site.We did not find the Mammoth in this site. Compared with other fauna of Northeast China in the late Pleistocene, Jinsitai's fauna is similar with them, but also there are some differences, Gezidong's chronicle is earlier, the main species in Jinsitai have been found in other sites such as Yushu's, Yanjiagang's, Gulongshan's fauna, etc. except Mammoth .According to the different habitats of various animals, we can conclude that Jinsitai's asynchronism environmental changes.In the lower layer, Jinsitai's environment primarily got off to winter wind prevail stagement, for the last time of glacial frigidity phase, Jinsitai might lay in the climate of frigid grassland environment.In the middle layer, the environment was still dryness, but already began warm up, except for arid grassland or desert environment, around Jinsitai, yet likelihood existing forest sparse broad-leaf forest zone.The upper layer 's environment became similar to the middle layer 's environment.In conclusion, on the base of detailed analysis of Jinsitai fauna's species, we can see the Crocuta ultima, Coelodonta antiquitatis, Equus przewalskii Poliakov, E. hemionus etc. in the lower layer as well as the Marmota bobak Muller, Spirocerus Doule & Teilhard etc. in the middle layer, which were all representatives of the late pleistocene's fauna. From Jinsitai's animal assamblege of each layer, it is noticed that the quantity of animal bones could be negligible in the lower layer. In the middle layer, the animal bone's quantity gradually increased and the variety of the species got the most. In super stratum, the animal bone's quantity began less once again. From the best part artificial bone marks found in the upper layer, we can see that Jinsitai's super stratum namely late palaeolithic upper layer was formed in the period, when human activities got foci and frequent.