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Cadernos Lab. Xeolóxico de Laxe Coruña. 2001. Vol. 26, pp. 289-299 ISSN: 0213-4497 Age structure and sex ratio of cave bears in the Zoolithenhöhle, southern Germany Estructura de edades y proporción de sexos del Oso de las Cavernas de Zoolithenhöhle, Alemania A B S T R A C T WEINSTOCK, J. This paper reports the results of the study of age and sexual composition of the cave bear (Ursus spelaeus) ‘population’ of the Zoolithenhöhle, a classic cave site in Bavaria, southern Germany. Radiocarbon dating indicates that the assemblage dates to c. 29-24 ka B P. The osteometrical analysis shows that the great majority (ca. 90%) of the bears denning in the site were females. The tooth eruption and wear reveal the presence of a larg e proportion of young and some mature animals but a marked paucity of very old adults. The reason(s) for this very skewed sex ratio and the almost total absence of senile individuals is unclear. Key words: cave bears, demography, sexual dimorphism, ageing, Germany Department of Archaeology. University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ, UK E-mail: j.weinstock@soton.ac.uk
290 WEINSTOCK, J. CAD. LAB. XEOL. LAXE 26 (2001) INTRODUCTION In the last 20 years there has been an interesting shift in cave bear research (both Ursus spelaeus and U. deningeri) from almost purely anatomical and palaeopathological questions to more palaeobiologicaly oriented studies such as those focusing on demography, diet, or evolution. Witness to this shift are the numerous publications based on Austrian, British, Spanish, and Turkish collections (e.g. ANDREWS & TURNER, 1992; FERNÁNDEZ MOSQUERA, 1998; G R A N D A L -d' A N G L A D E , 1 9 9 3 ; G R A N D A L -d' A N G L A D E & V I D A L R O M A N Í, 1997; G R O I S S , 1 9 9 4 ; RABEDER, 1983, 1991; REISINGER & HOHENEGGER, 1998; STINER, 1998; STINER et al., 1998; TORRES PÉREZ- H I D A L G O, 1984; TORRES PÉREZ- HIDALGO et al., 1991). It is only though understanding of the palaeobiology of this taxon that we will be able, eventually, to explore some of the many questions that remain to be answered, such as the reasons for its relatively restricted (basically European) geographical range, or the cause(s) for its extinction. I n t e r e s t i n g l y, southern Germany, while being one of the ‘classic’ cave bear areas, has not contributed much to this new research. It was, in fact, in southern Germany that the earliest discoveries of cave bear bones were made by J. Esper in 1774, and the holotype specimen of Ursus spelaeus comes from the Zoolithenhöhle (also known as the Gaillenreuth cave), a site in the Franconian Jura in south-eastern Germany (ROSENMÜLLER & HEINROTH, 1794). Some sites in the Swabian Alb (Baden-Württemberg , south-western Germany), notably the Bärenhöhle-Hohlenstein in the Lone Valley and the Sibyllenhöhle near the town of Kirchheim/Teck (figure 1), have been famous for their vast amount of cave bear remains since the second half of the 19th century, when they were presented in publications by O. FRAAS (1862) and E. FRAAS (1899) respectively. In spite of this long history, very few investigations on cave bears (either Ursus spelaeus or U. deningeri) from southern Germany have been carried out – or published – in the last few decades (see BOESSNECK & von den D R I E S C H, 1973; W E I N S T O C K, 2000a). One of the reasons for the paucity of studies on cave bears from southern Germany is probably the destruction or dispersal of some of the most important collections, such as that of the old excavations at the Zoolithenhöhle, the Bärenhöhle and the Sibyllenhöhle. According to K.-D. Adam, former curator of Quaternary Mammals in the State Museum for Natural History in Stuttgart, Germany, large parts of the collections from the last two of these sites were lost, or selectively removed, so rendering any study at the population level useless (K U RT É N, 1976). Nonetheless, these collections remain of value (WEINSTOCK, 2000a). In this contribution, however, I concentrate on the material from the Zoolithenhöhle that was recovered from more recent excavations by Heller and Groiss in 1971 (HELLER, 1972; GROISS, 1979). While the investigation of this material has not yet been completed, enough preliminary informa-
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