Paleolit českých zemí a Příroda pleistocénu, History of European Mammals

Světlo světa spatřila před pár týdny monumetální knižní monografie Jiřího A. Svobody at al.: Paleolit českých zemí. Vedle precisního vyčerpávajícího přehledu paleolitické problematiky a up-to-date informací o paleogenetice člověka z pera Prof.Macholána stojí tu za pozornost i obšírný (téměř 150 str.) úvodní blok poskytující synoptický přehled problematiky čtvrtohor a ucelenou inoformaci o dokladovém aparátu z našeho území. Za tento text jsme získali i letošní katedrální cenu vakovlka. Související presentace uvádějící dotyčný spis je zde:     vakovlk2025red.pptx

Pro účastníky kursu Vývoj přírody ČR, k němuž dotyčný text poskytuje stručné učebnicové zázemí přípojuji nekorigovanou předběžnou versi:  Paleolit_2. AK Priroda.pdf

a přehledový text History of European Mammals:   Horacek- History of European Mammals.pdf

Pro zajímavost připojuji i referát stran výzkumu savčí mikrofauny na mateřském pracovišti  (z roku 2021, kdesi i publikován, ale už nevím kde):

Study of fossil small mammals in Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic.

After retirement of a leading personality in study of fossil small mammals, Prof.Oldrich Fejfar (celebrating his 90's in this year), former chair in Department of Paleontology in Charles University, the major effort is performed in laboratory of Prof.Ivan Horacek at Department of Zoology. Besides focus on the range dynamics and morphometric variation of diverse extant clades during their latest history and geographic variation in the Late Pleistocene-Holocene rearrangements of the community structure, an attention is paid also to deep phylogenetic past of selected taxa (bats, rodents, moles, shrews) and mammalian biostratigraphy of the Late Cenozoic in Central Europe. 

The laboratory comparisons are mostly based on rich collections resulting from excavations in numerous sites during past decades (deposited both in the university collection and in the National Museum Prague). Field excavations are performed also in present years in a frame of regular students summer excursions.  During last years, particular effort has been focused to faunal record of the Early-Middle Pleistocene Transition, several sedimentary sequences of that age were systematically excavated and rich material available from former stages of their study was extensively reexamined. For some results see supplementary survey by Horáček et al. below in this issue.

The research team is attributed by former students, now professionally working in the Geological Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences (S.Čermák), National Museum Prague (J.Wagner) and Archeological Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences (R.Kyselý) and first of all by current students resolving their particular MSc or PhD projects.

A list of successfully resolved past projects devoted to the topic - MSc and PhD theses (all in Czech with English summary, under supervision by I.Horacek)  is below:

1995

*Haluzík R.: Dental variation in relics populations of Dicrostonyx torquatus along the Pleistocene/ Holocene boundary.   (MSc)

1996

*Ringel T.: Morphometric analysis of fossil and Recent populations of Arvicola spp. (MSc) 

1998

*Kyselý R.: Archaeozoology of the early Slavonic settlements Rubin and Stara Boleslav. (MSc)

2003

*Čermák S:. Lagomorpha in the Quaternary fossil record of Czechoslovakia. (MSc)

*Plata L.: Mustelidae in the Quaternary fossil record of Czechoslovakia. (MSc)

*Suvova Z.:  Phenotype dynamics in voles of the genus Microtus around the Pleistocene/ Holocene boundary: between-species and between-region comparisons (MSc)

2004

*Copková H.: Phylogenetic dynamics of dental morhotypes in Microtus arvalis group. MSc)

2005

*Krejčová D.: Phylogenetic dynamics of dental phenotype in Clethrionomys glareolus Mammalia: Arvicolidae) during the Late Quaternary period. (MSc) 

2008

*Knitlová M.: History of the  genus Apodemus in Holocene of Central Europe. (MSc)

*Balážová A.: Bats of the genus Plecotus in fossil record of Central and South-Eastern Europe. (MSc)

2009

*Čermák S.: Lagomorpha (Mammalia) of the Pliocene and Pleistocene of Europe: a revision of selected taxa.  (PhD)

*Kučera J.: A Middle Pleistocene glacial fauna of the site Stránská skála-Cave.  (MSc)

2010

*Kyselý R.: Archaeozoological topics of the Eneolithic in Czech Republic.  (PhD)

*Špoutil F.: Enamel microstructure of a tribospenic molar: comparative analysis.  (PhD)

2012

*Šindelář J.: Small mammals (Recent and subfossil) in food of the Barn owl in the Eastern Mediterranean. (MSc) 

2014

*Trojánková O. : Archaeozoological analyses of Unetice culture: aplication of alternative techniques. (MSc)

*Hanousková P.: Enamel microarchitecture of tribosphenic molars.  (MSc)

2016

*Trávníčková E.: Rearrangements of the mid-Europen bat fauna along the Pliocene/Pleistocene boundary: genus Myotis. (MSc)

*Putalová T.: Dynamics of dental phenotype of voles during the present glacial cycle. (MSc)

2017

*Knitlová M.: Palaeobiogeography and taxonomy of the genus Apodemus (Mammalia: Rodentia) in the Quaternary of Central Europe. (PhD) 

The most recent (2021) MSc. thesis was devoted to topics of the genus Sicista (see abstract below).

Tereza Lišková (2021): Genus Sicista (Mammalia, Rodentia) in fossil record of Central Europe: phenotype variation, taxonomic structure, range history. (MSc thesis, Faculty of Science, Charles Univ. Prague, 125 pp.)

Abstract:  Members of the genus Sicista rank among the rarest and the least known European mammals. They exhibit a number of outstanding specificities (hibernation, aestivation etc.) and extreme capability of a rarity range dynamics. Their fossil record is fragmentary and associated with numerous controversies. The thesis summarizes results of a detailed revision of the fossil record of Sicista from Czech Republic, Slovakia and some other countries. It comprises of about 150 items of the Holocene and Vistualian age as well as from the Middle and Early Pleistocne including earliest records from MN17/Q1 boundary and type material of S.praeloriger from Q1 Betfia. Compared to a sample of extant population, variation dynamics of both metrical and nonmetrical dental traits was examined in details with particular attention to phenotype patterns of particular fossil samples. The results demonstrated extensive amount of both within- and between-population variation and rather limited validity of commonly used discrimination criteria of extant clades. Nevertheless, we succeeded in species identification of considerable part of numerous Holocene and Vistulian records what revealed (i) a range expansion of S.subtilis s.l. during MIS 3 with persistent distribution in lowland regions of Central Europe in the Late glacial, (ii) an extensive range expansion of S.betulina during the late Vistualian and particularly the Preboreal and early Boreal when it colonized most regions of Central and Western Europe, and (iii) extensive local extinctions and range regression with woodland expansion since the late Boreal.

A critical comparison of our own results with further European fossil record of the genus revealed then that: (i) The genus Sicista colonized European range first simultaneously with a range expansion of Microtus along MN17/Q1 boundary. (ii) The dental phenotype of these and other Q1 items (including type of S.praeloriger) shows a broad variation combining dental patterns characterizing both the extant clades. (iii) In a good agreement with results of molecular analyses (Lebedev et al. 2019) the respective form (S.praeloriger s.str.) can be looked upon as a common ancesestor of betulina and subtilis s.l. (incl. severtzovi, loriger, trizona). (iv) The combinations of dental characters typical of extant betulina and subtilis s.l. seem to establish (perhaps simultaneously with divergent habitat preferences of these clades) during the Early-Middle Pleistocene transition along Q2/Q3 boundary (MIS 22-14). (vi) At least in some stages of the Middle Pleistocene both clades colonized considerable part of Europe probably with locally surviving relics populations. (vii) The extensive range expansion of S.betulina in early Holocene followed by complete extinction of the genus in western Europe and most areas of the Central Europe can be attributed to the specific features of faunal history of the present cycle, eventually. 

Selected recent papers 2017-2021:

Riegert, J., Šindelář, J., Zárybnická, M., & Horáček, I. (2021). Large-scale spatial patterns of small-mammal communities in the Mediterranean region revealed by Barn owl diet. Scientific reports, 11(1), 1-16.

Hajna, N. Z., Mihevc, A., Bosák, P., Pruner, P., Hercman, H., Horáček, I., ... & Švara, A. (2021). Pliocene to Holocene chronostratigraphy and palaeoenvironmental records from cave sediments: Račiška pečina section (SW Slovenia). Quaternary International, 605: 5-24.

Ptakova, M., Pokorný, P., Šída, P., Novak, J., Horáček, I., Juřičková, L., ... & Poschlod, P. (2021). From Mesolithic hunters to Iron Age herders: a unique record of woodland use from eastern central Europe (Czech Republic). Vegetation History and Archaeobotany, 30, 269-286.

Bonilla-Salomón, I., Čermák, S., Hernández Luján, Á., Horáček, I., Ivanov, M., & Sabol, M. (2021). Early Miocene small mammals from MWQ1/2001 Turtle Joint (Mokra-Quarry, South Moravia, Czech Republic): biostratigraphical and palaeoecological considerations. Bulletin of Geosciences, 96(1), 99-122.

Horáček I. in Šída P., Pokorný P. (eds.) 2020: Mesolithic of Northern Bohemia III. Evolution of prehistoric landscape in Bohemian Paradise: Vegetatiton, fauna, humans.  Archeological Inst. Czech Acad. Sci, Brno. 600 pp.

Hajna, N. Z., Bosák, P., Pruner, P., Mihevc, A., Hercman, H., & Horáček, I. (2020). Karst sediments in Slovenia: Plio-Quaternary multi-proxy records. Quaternary International, 546, 4-19.

Baca, M., Popović, D., Baca, K., Lemanik, A., Doan, K., Horáček, I., ... & Nadachowski, A. (2020). Diverse responses of common vole (Microtus arvalis) populations to Late Glacial and Early Holocene climate changes–Evidence from ancient DNA. Quaternary Science Reviews, 233, 106239.

Horáček I., Trávníčková, E. (2019). Myotis gerhardstorchi sp. n. and comments on the European fossil record of Myotis fratergroup (Mammalia, Chiroptera). Fossil Imprint, 75(3-4), 315-342. 

Svoboda, J., & Horáček, I. (2019). Between Bilzingsleben and Vértésszölös. Anthropologie, 57(3), 363-372.

Baca, M., Popović, D., Lemanik, A., Baca, K., Horáček, I., & Nadachowski, A. (2019). Highly divergent lineage of narrow-headed vole from the Late Pleistocene Europe. Scientific reports, 9(1), 1-10.

Trávníčková, E., Horáček I. (2019). Early Pleistocene. bat fauna from the Pertruv chamber of the Koneprusy Cave. Cesky kras 45, 55-57.

Nejman, L., Lisá, L., Doláková, N., Horáček, I., Bajer, A., Novák, J., ... & Králík, M. (2018). Cave deposits as a sedimentary trap for the Marine Isotope Stage 3 environmental record: The case study of Pod Hradem, Czech Republic. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 497, 201-217.

Svoboda, J., Pokorný, P., Horáček, I., Sázelová, S., Abraham, V., Divišová, M., ... & Perri, A. (2018). Late Glacial and Holocene sequences in rockshelters and adjacent wetlands of Northern Bohemia, Czech Republic: Correlation of environmental and archaeological records. Quaternary International, 465, 234-250.

Kallistová, A., Skála, R., Šlouf, M., Čejchan, P., Matulková, I., & Horáček, I. (2018). Enamel apatite crystallinity significantly contributes to mammalian dental adaptations. Scientific reports, 8(1), 5544.

Knitlová, M., & Horáček, I. (2017). Genus Apodemus in the Pleistocene of Central Europe: When did the extant taxa appear?. Fossil Imprint, 73, 460-481.

Knitlová, M., & Horáček, I. (2017). Late Pleistocene-Holocene paleobiogeography of the genus Apodemus in central Europe. PloS one, 12(3), e0173668.

Kallistová, A., Horáček, I., Šlouf, M., Skála, R., & Fridrichová, M. (2017). Mammalian enamel maturation: Crystallographic changes prior to tooth eruption. PloS one, 12(2), e0171424.

Horáček I., Sázelová S. (2017): Vertebrate fauna development in North Bohemian region during the Holocene. Pp. 35-48 in Svoboda J. (ed.) Mesolithic of Northern Bohemia II. Archeological Inst. Czech Acad.Sci. Brno, 247 pp.