Acta Zoologica Cracoviensia, 37(1) 1994

Issue:

VOL 37(1) 1994

Keywords:

Mammuthus primigenius, Cracow Spadzista Street B, Upper Palaeolithic, Pleistocene, Poland

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The number of mammoths Mammuthus primigenius (Blumenbach, 1799) at the Cracow Spadzista Street B site, estimated on the basis of their postcranial skeletal bones

• Piotr WOJTAL

Abstract:

In 1967 the Upper Palaeolithic site Cracow Spadzista Street В - was discovered. In the course of excavations carried out in 1968-1971 remains of 2-3 human dwellings built of mammoth bones were detected. On the basis of the mandibles and lower molars found at the site the number of the mammoths was estimated at 60 individuals (Kubiak & Zakrzewska 1974). The present study of limb bones reveals a big difference between the number of individuals established on the basis of the mandibles and lower molars and that obtained from an analysis of the postcranial bones. The limb tones found at this site indicate merely 9-22 mammoth individuals. The limb bones may have come from killed animals, whose legs were cut off and brought to this site. The mammoth population from Spadzista Street was declining or subject to selective killing.