Last deglaciation flooding events in the Southern Carpathians as revealed by the study of cave deposits from Muierilor Cave, Romania

Caves often hold valuable palaeoclimate archives including speleothems, fossil remains, and elastic sediments that complement each other. This paper presents a multi-archive interdisciplinary study of an extensive deposit of fossil mammals from the scientific reserve in the Muierilor Cave, Southern Carpathians, Romania. We present two new palaeontological excavations that indicate a high abundance and diversity of MIS 3-2 fossil mammals (carnivores, omnivores and herbivores) synchronous with the early modern humans known from this cave. Using geochmnological and sedimentological methods, we present a general reconstruction of the cave evolution between similar to 120 kyr B.P. and the Holocene. The study is based on a combination of geochronological tools including OSL dating of sediments, U/Th dating of speleothems, and radiocarbon dating of fossil remains, with a total of 54 ages. Based on U/Th dating of speleothems from stratigraphically-relevant positions, we show that the MIS 3 assemblage of fossil mammals were massively reworked and deposited during the post-LGM deglaciation, slightly earlier than previously known for the Southern Carpathians. On the other hand, several young radiocarbon ages of cave bear samples suggest that the Southern Carpathians might have been functioning as a glacial refuge for this species as late as similar to 22 kyr B.P.

Automated summary

This study presents a multi-archive interdisciplinary study of fossil mammals from Muierilor Cave in Romania, indicating a high abundance and diversity of fossil mammals synchronous with early modern humans. The research reconstructs cave evolution over time and suggests that the Southern Carpathians may have acted as a glacial refuge for cave bears as late as approximately 22 kyr B.P., based on U/Th dating of speleothems.