Dear Pam: Had to look this one up as well. The Theria are the sub-class of Mammalia which give birth to live young (the marsupials and placental mammals) unlike the monotremes (which have external eggs).

So the therifauna are the mammal species of most regions in the world (like the birds are its avifauna, its reptiles are its herpetofauna). I think some older universities (particularly in Eastern Europe) still have Departments of Theriology.

Greg Campbell

The Naive Chemist

From: Pam Cross <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Tuesday, 10 May 2011, 10:27
Subject: Re: [ZOOARCH] Article Lepiksaar 1986 - Theriofauna/Ridus '09 Ursus/Russian pdfs

Hi Albina

what does 'theriofauna' mean? I can't seem to find a definition, nor work out its usage from the ref's I've found. The word itself is not helpful since therio(n) is simply Greek for animal (possibly 'wild animal') and fauna is, of course, Latin for animals (of a given region or time) -- so 'wild animal animals'??

For those interested in Cave bears, check this out...“Bear Caves” in Ukraine, Ridus '09:

http://www.ssj.sk/pdf/ACS_47_S1/ACS_47_S107.pdf

This site has a number of Russian palaeo/speleo/envir etc. (some in English) pdfs available:

http://speleogenesis.info/institute/uisk_pages/member_biblio.php?id=11

cheers

Pam

Pamela J Cross
PhD researcher, Bioarchaeology
AGES, University of Bradford
BD7 1DP UK
p.j.cross (at) bradford.ac.uk
pajx (at) aol.com
http://www.barc.brad.ac.uk/resstud_Cross.php
http://bradford.academia.edu/PamCross

In a message dated 09/05/2011 17:16:40 GMT Daylight Time, [log in to unmask] writes:

Theriofauna