Multifractal Analysis of the Species Structure of Small-Mammal Communities of the Volga-Ural Paleobiocenosis

摘要

The late Quaternary evolution of the Volga-Ural paleobiocenosis has been used as an example to demonstrate the possibility of applying multifractal analysis to the species structure of fossil small-mammal communities. No logical contradictions have been found between the ecological specificities of small-mammal communities, as considered in temporal terms, determined by traditional methods and by means of multi-fractal formalism. The results have demonstrated that multifractal formalism methodologically based on the self-similarity principle may be regarded as an effective tool of paleoactualism in analysis of paleoecological data.