Les herbivores rares de l'Igue du Gral : du chamois au mammouth

Rare herbivores from Igue du Gral: from chamois to mammoth.- Although the presence of bovids, horses, reindeer and red deer is a consistant element in the Pleistocene faunas of the Quercy caves, the presence of other ungulates is sometimes more patchy. The presence of wild boar and roe deer is generally associated with Holocene fills or, more rarely, with older temperate episodes. The other ungulates usually associated with the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic hunting spectra in Quercy, such as the ibex and chamois, are only occasionally identified in the caves of this region. The Igue du Gral generally conforms to this pattern but has nevertheless yielded more than 200 bones of small and medium-sized ungulates. These rare taxa are dominated by young individuals. Osteometry therefore only concerns a small number of remains and is thus of more limited interest than for the other taxa. The presence of the saiga antelope, which is particularly rare between the Dordogne and Aveyron, should be noted. Finally, the very large ungulates (megaceros, rhinoceros and mammoth) are represented in quantities too small to be examined from a palaeontological or chronological perspective.