INTEGRATE project is now online!

Andra and Gabriela preparing the male and female cave bear mandibles from Oase Cave for inventory. Foto: Marius Robu

We are very excited to begin the first phase of our project - gathering and preparing all bone samples for the envisioned analyses (stable isotopes, microwear, morpho-osteometry and radiocarbon dating). Moreover, during this stage, the team will build a database with all available samples (right mandibles) derived from the large mammals discovered within the Late Pleistocene-Holocene cave deposits form several sites of the Romanian Carpathians.

All Ice Age mammal samples from caves, with already published data from this region, will be as well part of this database. Therefore, we are trying to integrate both past and new data of the Carpathian large mammals in order to have a clear picture about their paleoecology and extinction.

Our volunteers, Andra and Gabriela, are two young students (biologist and geographer, respectively) that will help us with both fieldwork and lab duties. Their contribution is more than helpful as the fossil material we are going to work within INTEGRATE is abundant.

Stay close, interesting news will follow!