Review of small mammal fossils from the lower layers at Strashnaya cave, Northwestern Altai (according to the data of 2018)

The article presents new data on small mammals obtained in the past field season. The Strashnaya Cave is one of the Altai caves, where the process of sedimentation has been affected by the marmot burrowing activity. The small mammal bones from the unaffected layers were analyzed in order to understand this impact. The trends characteristic of the small mammal fauna from the Strashnaya Cave are well reflected in the entire excavation area and in a single undisturbed subsquare. According to the data of small mammals, the open-type biotopes prevailed in the area of the Strashnaya Cave in the Late Pleistocene, although forest biotopes were present near the cave, but their impact was not as significant as that in the Northwestern Altai today. It has been shown that the biotic influence for sedimentation is minimal. The sizeable sample of small mammal bone remains makes the paleoreconstruction on the total excavation area most reliable.