Dagmar Cave (Czech Republic, Moravian Karst), a unique palaeontological site of the Cromerian Interglacial

• Published in: Quaternary international 2019-02, Vol.504, p.56-69
• Main Authors: Musil, Rudolf, Děkanovský, Ondřej, Ivanov, Martin, Doláková, Nela, Mrázek, Jan, Juřičková, Lucie, Lundberg, Joyce
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Cromerian interglacials; Environmental change; Molluscs; Palynology; Vertebrates
• ISSN: 1040-6182; 1873-4553
• DOI: 10.1016/j.quaint.2018.03.029

Dagmar Cave, Czech Republic, is the first locality in the Moravian Karst where sediments of Cromerian age have been discovered and it is the first locality with such a large number of species of molluscs of this age. It was originally a swallow hole initiated in the Neogene, which has since accumulated sediments. Basal sediments are palaeontologically-sterile stream boulders, originating from weathered Lower Carboniferous rock. After this, fossiliferous, loamy sediments were carried in from the entrance by streams and/or gravity. Molluscan and vertebrate assemblages, along with palynological remains, are indicative of interglacial conditions. Faunal analysis determined that this could only consist of one interglacial, either Cromerian III or IV. This is the first record of Middle Pleistocene molluscan fauna in the Moravian Karst. Palynology demonstrated a humid and thermophilic vegetation typical of a Cromerian interglacial, with forest, and probably water, and an open grassy/bushy area close to the cave. The age is constrained by a MIS 7 U-Th date (182 ka) on the calcite flowstone that overlies the interglacial material and underlies the palaeontologically more sterile upper sediments.