Habitat reconstruction for the Late Pleistocene Siberian saber-toothed cat Homotherium using microphytofossils

Abstract

Abstract The frozen mummy of a saber-toothed cat Homotherium latidens cub was found in the Upper Pleistocene permafrost of the Yedoma deposits on the Badyarikha River (the right tributary of the Indigirka River) in the northeast of Yakutia (East Siberia, Russia). We present the results of a study of organic microfossils (pollen, spores, plant detritus, etc.) and phytoliths from a deposit sample collected at the site of the discovery of the frozen mummy. Habitat of the Siberian Homotherium in the Badyarikha River region is reconstructed as a floodplain mature larch forest and mesic sedge-grass-forb meadows.