Šedivá M., Obuch J. & Sabol M., 2020: Avifauna from the Neanderthal Site of Prepoštská jaskyňa Cave (Bojnice I) near Prievidza - Biostratigraphical and palaeoecological implications. Acta Geologica Slovaca, 12, 1, 57–68.

Avifauna from the Neanderthal Site of Prepoštská jaskyňa Cave (Bojnice I) near Prievidza - Biostratigraphical and palaeoecological implications

Mária Šedivá¹, Ján Obuch² & Martin Sabol¹

¹Department of Geology and Palaeontology, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Comenius University in Bratislava, Ilkovičova Str. 6, SK – 84215 Bratislava, Slovak Republic; sediva20@uniba.sk, martin.sabol@uniba.sk
²Botanical Garden of the Comenius University in Bratislava, Blatnica Workplace, Blatnica 315, SK – 03815 Blatnica near Martin; obuch@rec.uniba.sk

Abstract

The Prepoštská jaskyňa Cave (Bojnice I) near Prievidza is an archaeological site with found Neanderthal settlements. The fossil material, including osteological remains of avifauna, comes from probes II and III by Juraj Bárta, who studied the site between 1965 and 1967. The fossil and subfossil finds of birds from the site under study are dated to the Last Glacial and Holocene. Their taxonomic and morphometric evaluation demonstrated the presence of 35 species belonging to 11 orders. All found and identified taxa belong to representatives of modern (Recent) bird species. The studied material was divided into four assemblages; the northern Lagopus-assemblage is typical for the climatic conditions of the Last Glacial. Based on the identified bird assemblages, the reconstruction of the palaeoenvironment and the climatic conditions prevailing at the locality during the time of fossiliferous deposits’ deposition have been realized. The osteological material was also taphonomically evaluated based on the found marks, indicating the activity of the various taphonomic agents.

Key words: Aves, palaeoenvironment, Quaternary, Prepoštská jaskyňa Cave, Slovakia

Manuscript received: 2020-01-07

Revised version accepted: 2020-06-16