Gigantopithecus blacki (Primates, Ponginae) from the Lang Trang Cave (Northern Vietnam): The Latest Gigantopithecus in the Late Pleistocene?

The dental remains of Gigantopithecus blacki von Koenigswald, 1935 (a complete right m2 with roots and distal fragment of left m2 crown) from the Upper Pleistocene deposits of the Lang Trang cave in northern Vietnam (Thanh Hoa Province) are described. It is the first record of Gigantopithecus in the Upper Pleistocene of Vietnam and, apparently, the second one in the Upper Pleistocene in general (considering material from Shuangtan cave in southern China). Probably, the extinction of G. blacki was confined to the Middle-Late Pleistocene transition, and the specimens from the Lang Trang cave belong to one of the latest relict populations of Gigantopithecus.

Pleistocene Mammals from the Lang Trang Cave (Vietnam): New Data.

The following mammal assemblage was identified among the materials collected in 2020 from the Pleistocene of the Lang Trang cave (northern Vietnam): the primates Pongo sp., Trachypithecus sp., Macaca cf. nemestrina (Linnaeus, 1766), and Macaca sp.; the carnivorans Arctonyx collaris rostratus Matthew et Granger, 1923 and Panthera sp.; the chiropteran Ia io Thomas, 1902; the rodent Hystrix kiangsenensis Wang, 1931; the proboscidean Elephas sp.; the perissodactyls Tapirus indicus (Desmarest, 1819) and Dicerorhinus sumatrensis (Fischer, 1814); the artiodactyls Sus scrofa Linnaeus, 1758, S. barbatus Müller, 1838, Tragulus kanchil (Raffles, 1821), Hydropotes inermis Swinhoe, 1870, Muntiacus muntjak (Zimmermann, 1780), Axis porcinus (Zimmermann, 1780), Rusa unicolor (Kerr, 1792), and Capricornis sumatraensis (Bechstein, 1799). I. io, S. barbatus, T. kanchil, H. inermis, and A. porcinus were detected in the Lang Trang fauna for the first time. The mammal assemblage is dominated by inhabitants of tropical forests (from lowlands to mountains), subtropical forms are also present.

A Finding of a Frozen Mummy of a Lemming (Rodentia, Cricetidae, Lemmus) in the Upper Pleistocene of Yakutia.

The external morphological, X-ray, and tomographic study of a frozen rodent mummy from the Upper Pleistocene Yedoma deposits on the Tirekhtyakh River (a Semyuelyakh River tributary, Abyi ulus, Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), Russia) showed its belonging to Lemmus sp. The radiocarbon age of the finding is 41 305-41 885 cal B.P. This is the first Pleistocene discovery of a frozen mummy of a genus Lemmus representative. In terms of the body and skull sizes, coat color, the lower incisor length, and the molar structure, the specimen studied is similar to the recent Lemmus sibiricus (Kerr, 1792). Comparison of the mitochondrial COB gene sequence with the DNA sequences presented in the GenBank database also testified to the maximum similarity with the Recent Siberian brown lemming.

The Taurida Cave, a New Locality of Early Pleistocene Vertebrates in Crimea.

We describe a vertebrate assemblage from the Pleistocene deposits of the Taurida karst cave discovered in 2018 in central Crimea (Zuya village, Belogorsk raion). The assemblage is correlated with Late Villafranchian faunas of the Eastern Mediterranean and has an approximate age of 1.8-1.5 Ma.

New data on the internal organs of a frozen Yukagir bison mummy (Bison priscus Bojanus, 1827), Yakutia, Russia.

The paper presents the first morphological description of the internal organs of a frozen corpse of the steppe bison Bison priscus (Bojanus, 1827) from the Holocene of northern Yakutia. Necropsy revealed that most of the internal organs, including the brain, heart with the main vessels, and reproductive system were well preserved. It demonstrated that the anatomy of this bison was close to that of the genera Bos and Bison. Trauma or pathological changes in the organs were not detected. The cause of death of the bison remains unknown.

The first record of Deinotherium (Proboscidea, Mammalia) in the Miocene of Adygea.

The data on an isolated upper tooth (P4) of Deinotherium sp. from the Late Miocene beds of the Maikop 1 locality (Maikop, Republic of Adygea) are reported. This is the first record of Deinotherium from the Upper Miocene of Russia. The tooth crown of P4 is similar in size to D. proavum Eichwald, 1831 (= D. gigantissimum Stefanescu, 1892).