Abstract
Bone remains of cranes from Holocene sites of the northern Black Sea region are analyzed. The distribution and number of crane subfossil records show that Anthropoides virgo was the most abundant and widespread species in the study region. Bone remains of Grus grus are found in small numbers in some ancient burials, whereas those of the extremely rare Grus leucogeranus are revealed at only two different locations of early antiquity in the Dnieper estuary area. Detailed observations suggest that a significant number of cranes ended up in the seaside burials during the spring migration, when some of them, weakened after a night flight across the Black Sea, made a forced landing as soon as they had reached the coast. A comparison of the ratio of bone remains at the localities where all three crane species are present shows that the number of such records of Anthropoides virgo significantly exceeds that of the other two crane species. As the number of records of Grus grus and Grus leucogeranus appears to be similar, Grus leucogeranus may be suggested to have been more common in the northern Black Sea region in the past than it is at present.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors are extremely grateful to E.E. Antipina (Institute of Archeology, Russian Academy of Sciences) and A.V. Panteleev (Zoological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences) for providing us with unpublished data on the finds of subfossil bone remains of cranes in the northern Black Sea region.
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Tsvelykh, A.N., Tajkova, S.Y. Cranes (Gruiformes, Gruidae) of the Northern Pontic Area in the Late Holocene. Biol Bull Russ Acad Sci 48, 1342–1346 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1062359021080306
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S1062359021080306