Radiocarbon dating of the remains of rare Pleistocene megafauna species in Southern Siberia

The paper describes more than 50 radiocarbon dates generated on the bone remains of11 rare species of large mammals of the Pleistocene - Holocene era from the southeastern part of Western Siberia and Transbaikalia. It has established that C. crocuta spelaea inhabited the Upper Ob region in the second half of the Karginsky Interglacial (33.4-37.7 thousand years ago). The remains of the Panthera leo spelaea are dated to the Kargin-Sartan period, up to 13.5 thousand years ago. Dating of the bones of Stephanorhinus kirchbergensis and Soergelia cf. elisabethae produced age beyond the method age limit (> 40 thousand years ago). The first information about the habitat of Megaloceros giganteus in the Upper Ob in the Sartanian Glaciation (22.2 thousand years ago) was obtained, as well as new early Holocene dates of its remains (11.1 and 8.6 thousand years ago). Radiocarbon dates of the bones of Bos primigenius (5.6 to 10.6 thousand years ago) indicate that this species appeared in the south of Western Siberia as late as in the early Holocene. Most of the dated bones of Saiga tatarica borealis belong to the Sartan Glaciation (15.4-19.8 thousand years ago). A vertebra of Ovibos moschatus from the Chumysh River is dated to 17 thousand years ago, which indicates that rare penetration of this species to 53° North latitude occurred during the maximum of the last glaciation. Spirocerus kiakhtensis lived in Transbaikalia until the terminal Pleistocene (13.5 to 28.8 thousand years ago).