Late Cenozoic catfishes of Southeastern Europe with inference to their taxonomy and palaeogeography

The paper is devoted to a re-examination of the bird remains from the numerous East Slavic settlements (10–13th centuries AD). Species diversity suggests that medieval people in the Eastern Europe used birds for food, falconry, in ritual and, possibly, for aviary specimens and pets. Furthermore, bird feathers were used for preparing arrows. The most popular bird of prey was goshawk. Primary game birds were ducks, geese, swans, common crane and corvids along with black grouse and capercaillie in forest zones. The archaeological data present evidence for the use of wild birds (e.g., hooded crow) in funeral ceremonies for the first time. The majority of the identified birds have not changed their distribution, but in recent times some of these taxa have become rarer. Red-breasted goose is now extant in the area but its remains were found in the medieval layers, although this species could have been an occasional visitor in the Ukraine. Archaeological data and historical sources prove that white stork has lived in the territory of Ukraine since the Middle Ages or even earlier. The most common domestic poultry for the East Slavs was chicken. Domestic ducks and geese were much rarer. Historical documents were also consulted in this study and these also contribute to our understanding of the role of birds in the life of the East Slavs.

The Medobory Hills barrier reef in western Ukraine represents a unique environment during the late Badenian that existed for a relatively brief time. Here, we describe 170 specimens of otoliths and scarce skeletal elements that were collected in the back-reef environment of the central part of the barrier reef in the city of Horodok. They represent a rare window into a reef-associated bony fish fauna. The otolith assemblage is very diverse and differs in several aspects from time-equivalent otolith associations described from other regions and environments within the former Paratethys. The Medobory back-reef otolith assemblage is dominated by a highly diverse gobioid community, several of which are believed to reflect specific reef adaptations that have not been identified elsewhere. A total of 26 species have been identified, of which eight are described as new, including two new genera. In the order in which they are described, the new taxa are as follows: Gobiidae: Gobius bratishkoi n. sp., Gobius ukrainicus n. sp., Parenypnias n. gen. inauditus n. sp., Parenypnias n. gen. kiselevi n. sp., Medoborichthys n. gen. podolicus n. sp., and Medoborichthys n. gen. renesulcis n. sp.; Blenniidae: Blennius vernyhorovae n. sp.; and Labridae: Coris medoboryensis n. sp. The environmental implications of the otolith-based fish fauna are discussed, and a supraregional correlation of late Badenian otolith associations throughout the Paratethys is presented. ZooBank LSID: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:BFD6A482-A250-4603-AD60-D94E7756D4FB https://zoobank.org/72CECD6E-B1C3-49FF-AFE1-C542140706D0 .