THE FIRST DISCOVERY OF THE LATE CENOZOIC SMALL MAMMALIAN FAUNAS IN THE SOUTH OF EASTERN TRANSBAIKALIA

Late Cenozoic deposits, named <<belesaya>>, sands, are widely distribu ted in Eastern Transbaikalia. They have comprehensively been studied f or the last decades. Mollusk faunas, pollen and sporen were described from these sands. There are also several absolute data on these sands. Up to date, however, no fossil remains of small mammals were found in this region. Our recent excavations permitted us for the first time t o collect Late Pliocene and Pleistocene remains of lagomorphs and rode nts from five localities. Studying these fossils we have found that at least three faunas are similar to West-Transbaikalian ones: Chikoi, T ologoi and Upper Paleolithic faunistic complexes. The ancient fauna fo und in Eastern Transbaikalia is represented by the Late Pliocene Chiko i faunistic complex with Villanyia and Prosiphneus. The next Early Ple istocene fauna includes representatives of the Tologoi faunistic compl ex such as Eolagurus simplicidens, Myospalax wongi and Lasiopodomus br andti. Upper Pleistocene fauna of Eastern Transbaikalia consists of sp ecies of Upper Paleolithic faunistic compex. The presence of the above -mentioned species widely distributed in Northern China, Mongolia and Western Transbaikalia, permits us to correlate Late Pliocene and Pleis tocene faunas and deposits of these regions.