Sedimentary history of Za Hajovnou Cave (Moravia, Czech Republic): A unique Middle Pleistocene palaeontological site

Za Hajovnou Cave in the Javoricko Karst (Moravia, Czech Republic) has a rich record of Middle Pleistocene, typical Holsteinian, flora and fauna dominated by bear Ursus deningeri. Sedimentological, geochemical, mineralogical, geophysical, palynological and zoopalaeontological analyses of the sediments along with U-Th dating of flowstones place the deposits into a numerical timeframe. The cave origin dates to a period before the mid-Miocene Badenian transgression. The oldest (fluvial) deposits are Lower Pleistocene, spanning the Brunhes/Matuyama boundary. The later (terrestrial) deposits range from Middle Pleistocene to Holocene. The most important result of U-Th dating is that the main (Holsteinian senso lato) fossil bed can be correlated with MIS 9. The lower fossil bed is probably MIS 11, and the upper fossil bed MIS 5e. This represents one of the still-relatively-few numerically dated Holsteinian sites, contradicts the Global Chronostratigraphical Correlation Table that places the Holsteinian only in MIS 11, and supports the concept that the Holsteinian is not a single unit and likely not confined to a single interglacial. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved.