New Late Pleistocene faunal assemblages from Podhale Basin, Western Carpathians, Poland: preliminary results

Interdisciplinary studies in Obłazowa Cave undertaken near its western entrance and in a new archaeological site in Cisowa Rock yielded finely layered sedimentary sequences with an abundant fossil fauna of mainly small vertebrates and scarce archaeological finds. In this paper we present a preliminary palaeoenvironmental and palaeoclimatic reconstruction of the sequences dated around MIS 2/MIS 1 boundary on the basis of small mammal assemblages. The faunal changes appear to be gradual in spite of abrupt climatic changes expected to occur at that time. The environmental and faunal results are discussed with other sequences of similar age in Poland.