Rodents and climate. 1. A model for estimating past temperatures using arvicolids (Mammalia: Rodentia)

Analysis of 253 extant mammalian local faunas shows that the number of arvicoline species in each fauna is related to temperature parameters. The very high correlation allows us to propose a method to estimate the temperature for fossil faunas bearing arvicoline species from temperate areas. To illustrate this method, mean annual temperatures were estimated for Late Pleistocene Hungarian localities and for a sequence from the Baume de Gigny (Jura, France). These were compared with results obtained by other techniques (multivariate analysis of rodent associations and synthetic analysis of pollen, faunal, and sedimentological data).