Pleistocene birds from the east gallery of Denisova cave (Northwestern Altai)

The article presents new materials on bird fauna from the completed excavation of the Pleistocene horizons in the east gallery of Denisova Cave. Twenty four waterfowl, tundra, steppe, forest, and rocky bird species have been identified from the total of 701 bone remains. The willow ptarmigan, Altai snow cock, Pallas’s sand grouse, and chough typical of the Pleistocene of Northwestern Altai have been found, which points to the existence of the Alpine tundra-steppes and dry steppes during the accumulation of the Pleistocene deposits. The composition of the Pleistocene bird fauna is in good agreement with the discoveries of large mammals of the same period from the east gallery. The majority of bird species inhabits the Northwestern Altai in the present time. The clear change of the Pleistocene Alpine-tundra-steppe bird fauna by the Holocene forest-steppe bird fauna and the mosaic nature of paleolandscapes have been observed.