Fragments of two skulls of young cetotheriid baleen whales were described from the Fortep’yanka 2 locality (Russia, Republic of Adygea, Maikop district, Fortep’yanka River valley, Upper Miocene, Upper Sarmatian, Blinovskaya Formation). The finds were attributed to Kurdalagonus maicopicus (Spasskii, 1951) based on the morphology of the posterior (mastoid) process of the petrosal bone, the structure of the posterior edge of the temporal fossa, and the S-like shape of the supraoccipital ridges. The skull proportions and the degree of suture closure made it possible to determine the individual age of the whales within a year. New finds significantly complement the data on the structure of the sutures of the lateral wall of the skull and age-related variability of cranial morphology in representatives of the genus Kurdalagonus.

Coprolites of the seal Pachyphoca volkodavi from the Upper Miocene deposits (Kherson) of the Fortepyanka locality (Republic of Adygea) were studied. Two out of five seal coprolites contained a structure resembling fish muscle tissue and included objects with morphology of trematode metacercariae. Obviously, the larvae of the parasite got into the digestive tract of seals from the fish they ate. Microscopic analysis of the coprolites did not reveal helminth eggs, which indicates possible absence of infection.

The paper considers the main features of the late Miocene faunas of terrestrial vertebrates and marine mammals of Southeastern Europe and their general dynamics in connection with landscape and climatic changes. We note that the geographical area corresponding to the modern northwestern and northern Black Sea region with adjacent territories was a territory of intense diversification during the late Miocene. The revealed biogeographic significance of the region is associated with the fact that a border between the forest biome and open and/or semi-open landscapes occurred on this territory in the late Miocene. Accelerated diversification in this transitional (ecotone) zone is supposed to be associated with the fragmentation of species' geographical ranges under pronounced spatial differentiation of plant associations and a wide representation of mosaic habitats caused by significant climatic fluctuations. We further discuss the general evolutionary potential of peripheral communities, as exemplified by the Hipparion vertebrate faunas of southeastern Europe.

This article describes two lumbar vertebrae, an isolated lumbar vertebra, and two endplates, possibly a thoracic (?) vertebra of a cetacean from the Basilosauridae family, found in 2020 and 2021 in the Upper Eocene light green clays of the Beloglinskaya Formation near the village of Gorny Luch, Apsheron District, Krasnodar Territory. In the shape and structure of the lumbar vertebrae, the whale from the Gorny Luch locality sharply differs from the typical Basilosaurinae. The new find is the first evidence of the presence of basilosaurids in the studied region, which significantly adds to our knowledge of the vertebrate fauna of Beloglinskaya age.

The fossil remains of a seal of the genus Pachyphoca from the Upper Miocene Sarmatian stratum of the Morskaya-3 site (Neklinovskii district, Rostov region) were described. According to the structure of the humerus and pelvic bones, the seal was identified as Pachyphoca ukrainica Koretsky et Rahmat, 2013. This is the first evidence of the presence of representatives of this genus in northeast of Taganrog Bay, demonstrating the similar composition of the Middle Sarmatian fauna of marine mammals in the western and eastern districts of the Northern Black Sea region.

An extinct thermophile European water buffalo Bubalus murrensis was recorded in the interglacials of the Middle and Late Pleistocene in Central and Western Europe. The species was unknown after the Eemian Interglacial (c. 123 ka) there and have never been found in Eastern Europe. Here we report on an unexpected record of this exotic species in the center of East European Plain near the Kolomna town (Moscow Region) more than 110 millennia later, in the Bølling – Allerød warming of the Last glacial. The unique paleontological discovery of the last European water buffalo in the center of Eastern Europe occupied mainly by a cold adapted so-called 'Mammoth fauna' allow us to discuss this unusual occurrence in paleoenvironmental context and suggest the model of dispersal and final extinction of the species. Based on recent integrated studies, we show that the species could persist in the Ponto-Caspian region and then spread northwards during the last Late Pleistocene warming. Main factors of its extinction could be the rapid global climatic changes and strong regional paleoenvironmental instability as well as increasing activity of Upper Paleolithic hunters. The discovery is important in the context of the late Quaternary megafaunal extinctions and a recent phenomenon of global warming.

A new subspecies of the fossil European water buffalo, Bubalus murrensis extremus, is described from an almost complete skull found in the Upper Pleistocene deposits of the Lukerino village near the city of Kolomna (Moscow Region). The fossil is dated to the Allerød interstadial (12.8 cal. kyr). Until now, the species was only known from the Middle and early Late Pleistocene of Europe. New data allow us to clarify the diagnosis and occurrence of the species.

A fragment of a bear skull with partially preserved dentition is descibed from the Lower Pleistocene deposits of the Taurida cave (Crimea). The presence of P1–P3, the structure of P4, and sizes of the cheek teeth enable the identification of the specimen as Ursus etruscus Cuvier, 1823. The new find is the first in Crimea and the entire Russia and is of great interest due to rarity of this species in the Pleistocene of Eastern Europe.

The skull of a buffalo from the Upper Pleistocene deposits in the Lukerino village near the city of Kolomna (Moscow Region) was found to belong to Bubalus murrensis (Berckhemer, 1927). In Western Europe, this species occurred in the Middle and Late Pleistocene during interglacials. In the Pleistocene of the East European Plain, the fossil Bubalus is discovered for the first time. According to the radiocarbon (14C) analysis of the collagen, the fossil dates to the Allerød interstadial (the age is ca. 12 800 years).

Fragments of four Zygiocetus sp. whale skeletons from the Melek-Chesme locality at the Kerch Peninsula are described. This is the first finding of the representatives of this genus in Crimea.

The article describes fossil remains of two spiral-horned antelope species Gazellospira torticornis (Aymard, 1854) and Pontoceros ambiguus Vereschagin, Alexejeva, David et Baigusheva, 1971 which were found in 2018 in the Lower Pleistocene sediments of the Taurida Cave in Central Crimea. These finds are the first evidence of the occurrence of these taxa on the Crimean Peninsula. This association is correlated with the Late Villafranchian faunas of Europe and the mammal zone MNQ18 (within the time interval 1.8–1.5 Ma). Fossils of G. torticornis from the Taurida Cave confirm the tendency towards a reduction in size among the late representatives of this antelope species. P. ambiguus from the Taurida Cave is one of the earliest representatives of the species in the south of Europe. Finds of spiral-horned antelopes in the Taurida Cave help elucidate the details of their morphological evolution, refine their geographic and stratigraphic range.

Remains of a fossil cetacean, belonging to the family Basilosauridae, are for the first time found in the territory of the Baltic States. This finding is represented by a large vertebra and comes from the Late Eocene amber-bearing “Blue Ground” bed of the Sambia Peninsula in the Kaliningrad Region. The described fossil expands our knowledge on paleogeography and stratigraphic occurrence of Basilosauridae.