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often highly spcclalized mollusc spccics cnublus to reconstruct not only the generał type of vogotntion but cvcn the prescnec of smali stcppc pulchesor miniaturę marshes in othcrwise cli (Toront oimromnenl e.g. in forests.

Vertebrate, ospooially mammals nccd the alikc calcareous conditionsof Ibssilizalion, but bccuu.se of the bonę sizc tlicy are less scnsitivc to post-dep-ositional changes suoh as dissolution. The big bones oflargc animals likcdccr that cannot be directly linked to one specific environmcnt represent the most common typc of finds. The number of Vertebrate spccics is almost always lowcr than number of Mollusc spccics and the number of individuals can be lesser by two or three orders, because we may find per one square meteras many as several hundred molluscs. Thcrcfore the places of secondary concen-tration of Vertebrate remnants I ike predator burrows or owi 's castings represent the most welcomed evidence. One rnust be, howevcr, aware that these places - often located in diversified karst terrain where smali cavities are abun-dant - cover the whole predator territory. We often find c.g. under nests of large owls a thanotocoenosis that is composed of the local mollusc assemblage mixed together with Vertcbrate remnants of animals collccted in variousen-yironments, freąuently in the vicinity oflargc river and its floodplain. Such places may yield a surprisingly valuable complcmcntary evidenceofthe local conditions and larger landscape background.

Archaeological finds are abundant espccially in karst and sandstone caves and rockshelters and around tufa bodies. They providc the cheapest dating technique and they enable studies of human induced impact in the vicinityof site where e.g. phases of deforestation or sheet erosion associated with Neolith-ic farming can be deciphered. The lines of sedimentological. pedological, geochemical and biostratigraphical evidencc may thus intcrscct incomplex intepretation of given Holocenc strata - e.g. on the area of Bohemian Karst (130 km ) some 50 Holocene sites werc excavatcd to obtain plastic picturc of Holocene environmcnts from lowcst points in floodplain of Berounka Riv-er, over valley sides and platcau relief to the tops of highest hills. The Holocene rcscarch in the Slovak Carpathians providcd large scalę landscape interpre-tation of environmcntal and climatic changcs from lloodplains, to adjoining forests of hilly regions, xcrothcrmic patchcs of isolatcd rocks at different altitudes to the montane marshes, plateaus and high pcaks (Lożck 1992).

The ndvanlage ofsevcral rather independent lines ofcvidcnec lics not only in the complcxity of paleocnvironmcntal interpretation, but in theirmutual veriRctilion - e.g. chalky loosc sinter (foam sinter) of flowstonc in limestonc rockshelters prove high humidity, that is verilicd by the prcsence of molluscs preferring vcry humid places. This layer ncver contains archaeological li mis