Loess and Loess Steppe – a Neglected Biome of the Ice Age II. The Loess Steppe – a Prominent Constituent of Glacial Landscape

Ložek V.

Although loess has been generally regarded as a glacial or periglacial phenomenon, its spe-cific fabric and sedimentary environments have been repeatedly discussed. Incorporated mammalian bones have suggested steppe grassland since the 19th century, but rich molluscan fossils have only been fully appreciated during the last 5 - 6 decades. Molluscan evidence was often obscured by records from non-loessic intercalations within the loess series that reflected conditions differing from those of typical loess but only recent analysis of the loess malaco-coenoses has provided evidence that the loess forms in pecular environments of the loess steppe whose snail communities have present-day analogues in Central Asia (and not in the subpolar belt!) and whose severe continental climate with warm summers sharply distin-guishes the loess steppe from the glacial tundra-like grasslands of oceanic W and NW Europe.

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