The northern gannet (Morus bassanus, Pelecaniformes, Sulidae) in the Black Sea in the Late Holocene

Abstract

Fossil remains of gannets were found during excavations in the port area of the ancient city of Chersonesus (Sevastopol) in the layers dating to the 5th and 10th centuries AD. Judging by the joint findings of gannet bones and those of other marine fish-eating diving birds, they had been captured in fishing nets, where they died while diving for fish. The species composition of the aquatic birds accompanying the findings of gannets suggests that gannets appeared on the northern coast of the Black Sea mainly during cold seasons. The distribution and number of findings of gannets in the northern Black Sea region indicates that these birds were widespread there. Gannets could have appeared in the Black Sea from the Mediterranean Sea penetrating there from the Atlantic Ocean during long eastward migrations. Gannets appeared in the fauna of the Black Sea no later than the 6th century BC and became extinct no earlier than the tenth century AD, probably surviving up until the 14th–15th centuries AD.