ИСТИНА

The Late Middle Pleistocene–Late Pleistocene–Holocene (MIS6–MIS1, ~ 175–4 kyr BP) evolution of European mammal’s fauna (excluding bats) was first explored based on data from 425 dated localities situated within the Middle European Central (Northern part) bioregion. The latter includes the territory of Poland, Lithuania, Belarus (entirely), Latvia (most of the territory) and (partially) - northeastern Germany, north of Czech Republic, northern part of Ukraine, southwestern Estonia, and Russia (central and western regions of the European part of the country). All the data (106 species “presence – absence”) were aggregated by 34 time intervals (time scale with unequal beams). We obtained a generalized two-dimensional model of fauna composition changes. The main (first) coordinate of the model correlates with the species richness variation and the global climate (δ18O), and the second one – with the geologic age. The model describes the transitions from MIS6 to MIS5e, from MIS4 to MIS3, from MIS3 to MIS2, and finally from MIS2 to MIS1. The temporal faunal complexes were in steady states between irreversible unstable transitional states. The time succession of steady states reflects the irreversible evolution of the regional mammal assemblage between the end of the Middle Pleistocene and the Holocene. We assume three waves of extinctions (at the regional level): MIS4 (~ around 75 kyr BP), MIS2 (~ 23–20 kyr BP), and at the boundary the Pleistocene and the Holocene (~ 12.5–9 kyr BP). The “Last Glacial faunal assemblage” was formed at the beginning of MIS3 in this bioregion, and it lasted until the Younger Dryas climatic event.