Mammalian remains m a Patafntafiit 19 MAMMALIAN REMAINS IN A PALAEOLITHIC CONTEXT

Palaeolithic industries are often associated with fossil mammalian remains which can inform us nol only on the subsistence of our Palaeolithic ancestors but can also be used for a reconstruction of the palaeoenvironment and for relative dating of the Palaeolithic sites. The applicability of fossil mammals to a reconstruction of she palaeoenvironment is however ham-pered by a number of restrictions. The distribution of homoithermic mammals depends more on food than on external temperatures. Smaller mammals may even be less dependent on environmental conditions than larger mammals as they have the capacity to live under micro-climatic conditions. The use of fossil mammals for inferring former ecological conditions is also hampered by the fact that mammals have the capacity to adapt to various environments and lo tolerate other circumstances than those under which they live today. The evolution as observed in the Pleistocene Arvicolidae is most likely not restricted to changes in morphologv as the morphological changes may be the result of adaptations to a different environment. There mnv even be adaptations to a different environment which are not reflected in morpho-logical changes. When interpreting a fossil assemblage and translating the data into a palaeoenviron