%0 Journal Article
%T Recycling of Badger/Fox Burrows in Late Pleistocene Loess by Hyenas at the Den Site Bad Wildungen-Biedensteg (NW, Germany): Woolly Rhinoceros Killers and Scavengers in a Mammoth Steppe Environment of Europe
%A Cajus Diedrich
%J Journal of Geological Research
%D 2013
%I Hindawi Publishing Corporation
%R 10.1155/2013/190795
%X The Late Pleistocene (MIS 5c-d) Ice Age spotted hyena open air den and bone accumulation site Bad Wildungen-Biedensteg (Hesse, NW, Germany) represents the first open air loess fox/badger den site in Europe, which must have been recycled by Crocuta crocuta spelaea (Goldfuss, 1823) as a birthing den. Badger and fox remains, plus remains of their prey (mainly hare), have been found within the loess. Hyena remains from that site include parts of cub skeletons which represent 10% of the megafauna bones. Also a commuting den area existed, which was well marked by hyena faecal pellets. Most of the hyena prey bones expose crack, bite, and nibbling marks, especially the most common bones, the woolly rhinoceros Coelodonta antiquitatis (NISP£¿£¿=£¿£¿32%). The large amount of woolly rhinoceros bones indicate hunting/scavenging specializing on this large prey by hyenas. Other important mammoth steppe hyena prey remains are from Mammuthus primigenius, Equus caballus przewalskii, Bison/Bos, Megaloceros giganteus, Cervus elaphus, and Rangifer tarandus. The few damaged bone remains of a scavenged cave bear Ursus spelaeus subsp. are unique for an open air situation. Abundant micromammal, frog, and some fish remains were concentrated in ¡°pellets¡± that contain mainly mammoth steppe micromammals and also frog and fish remains that seem to originate from the nearby river/lake. 1. Introduction Late Pleistocene European bone assemblages have been produced mainly by late Ice Age spotted hyena Crocuta crocuta spelaea [1] and were first recognized by Buckland [2] in the ¡°Kuhloch Cave¡± (K£¿nig-Ludwigs Cave, Bavaria, Germany) and the Kirkdale Cave (Kent, England). More recent studies provide information on the hyena prey bone assemblages (e.g., [3¨C10]) as well as on the new subdivided fossil hyena den types (e.g., [11]). These identifications of three classified Ice Age den forms are particularly important also to distinguish bone accumulations made by hyenas from those accumulated by Middle Palaeolithic humans (e.g., [9, 12¨C15]). Few contemporary used hyena and Neanderthal sites have been described from hyena dens in mammoth steppe lowlands and adjacent cave-rich region environments of north-central Europe, in England and Germany [9, 16]. The degree of prey bone damage and presence/absence of ¡°nibbling sticks¡± and faecal pellets or hyena population structure and their individual amount allow the reconstruction, much better, of the ethology of the last hyenas of Europe. The discussions for nonarchaeological sites no longer focus only on the human/carnivore origin discussion. Although
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