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This is an insightful, highly original ethnographic interpretation of the hunting life of the Yukaghirs, a little-known group of indigenous people in the Upper Kolyma region of northeastern Siberia. Basing his study on firsthand experience with Yukaghir hunters, Rane Willerslev focuses on the practical implications of living in a \"hall-of-mirrors\" world—one inhabited by humans, animals, and spirits, all of whom are understood to be endless mimetic doubles of one another. In this world human beings inhabit a betwixt-and-between state in which their souls are both substance and nonsubstance, both body and soul, both their own individual selves and reincarnated others. Hunters are thus both human and the animals they imitate, which forces them to steer a complicated course between the ability to transcend difference and the necessity of maintaining identity.

This analysis of the mythical Old Man—a cannibal character in the tales of the Forest Yukaghirs (Odul)—considers the significance of a particular genre of song in Odul folklore. The article highlights discrepancies among the ethical norms that emerge in Odul folklore representing problems faced in everyday life. These tales are interpreted in terms of human/non-human, insider/outsider, attraction/protection, and a number other dichotomies, as well as the form of recitation.

The purpose of this work was study of the physiological state of the large-toothed redback vole population at different phases of the population cycle. The study revealed that each population level of animals corresponded to a specific morphophysiological type. Significant differences were revealed between the values of several energy and immune parameters at high and low population levels. In the phase of \"peak\" number the level of most physiological indicators were consistent with stressful. The participation of stress is assumed in the suppression of reproduction and increased mortality of voles observed in the phases of high numbers.

More than 200 analyses of the sulfur isotopic composition of sulfides from various terrigenous and intrusive host rocks, metasomatically altered wall rocks, and gold lodes of the Upper Kolyma region are presented. In accessory pyrite of the metaterrigenous rocks, δ 34 S varies from −23.1 to +5.7‰ δ 34 S of pyrite and arsenopyrite from gold-quartz mineralization is within the range −10.6 to −0.4‰ and is close to the average δ 34 S of pyrite from the metaterrigenous rocks (−4.4‰). In the intrusive rocks, δ 34 S of pyrite varies from −3.8 to +2.6‰ (+0.7‰, on average) and drastically differs from δ 34 S of arsenopyrite from postmagmatic gold-rare-metal mineralization (−7.9 to −2.7‰; −5.2‰, on average). The comparison of the δ 34 S of accessory sulfides from the host rocks with δ 34 S of sulfides from the gold deposits suggests that sulfur mobilized from the terrigenous sequences participated in the hydrothermal process. The results obtained are consistent with the metamorphic model of the formation of gold-quartz deposits in the Upper Kolyma region.

Several parameters of energy and immune homeostasis in immature red-backed voles at different phases of the population cycle have been evaluated and compared over three cycles (2002–2009). It has been found that a specific morphophysiological type of population is characteristic of each phase of the cycle. The values of all physiological parameters recorded at high and low population densities significantly differ from each other, with their values being usually intermediate at a medium density. The level of most energy and immune parameters at the phase of population peak corresponds to that observed under stress. Supposedly, stress contributes to suppression of reproduction and increased mortality of the voles.

The Verkhoyansk–Kolyma fold-thrust belt is an important metallogenic structure of northeastern Russia. Based on irregularly distributed gold mineralization within this belt two large ore-placer districts are distinguished: the Upper Indigirka district (UID) in the northwest and the Central Kolyma district (CKD) in the southeast. The gold grade in these areas is largely provided by a large fault structure—the ore-controlling Adycha–Taryn deep fault. Along the entire length, this fault changes its kinematic characteristics, from an overthrust reverse fault in the north to a strike-slip reverse fault (Tenka fault) in the south. Such a change of the fault kinematics laterally, in the principal ore-controlling structure, is reflected in the structure of specific ore-bearing faults in ore areas, as we have shown on the example of the Degdekan (CKD) and Drazhnoe (UID) deposits. In the Degdekan deposit, synthetic overthrust reverse faults, which control large-volume deposits of relatively poor ores, are ore-bearing, and, in the Drazhnoe deposit, opposite strike-slip faults contain small-size, superimposed rich ore bodies. The change of ore-bearing faults in different ore areas is explained by their position in the changing stress field that formed at different stages of geodynamic development: (1) associated with the collision of the Kolyma–Omolon superterrane and the Siberian craton and collision with the Alazeya arc (early ore mineralization of the Upper Indigirka ore district) and the Uda–Murgal arc (early disseminated pyrite mineralization of the Central Kolyma ore district) and (2) collision with the Chukchi microcontinent and re-activation of earlier faults (the main gold-sulfide-quartz mineralization of the Yana–Kolyma metallogenic belt).

The Late Jurassic–Early Cretaceous Oloy complex was formed in the setting of convergence between the Chukotka microcontinent and the Kolyma–Omolon margin. Its evolution reflects the closure of the South Anyui Ocean, with controversial timing estimates. This study emphasizes the integration of lithological data with magmatic and metallogenic information to reconstruct geodynamic processes. The article presents the results of detailed petrographic and geochemical studies, Sm-Nd isotope analyses, and U-Pb dating of detrital zircons from Kimmeridgian–Lower Hauterivian volcaniclastic and epiclastic sandstones. Petrographic studies and U-Pb dating of detrital zircons identified the main sources at different stages and the amount of synchronous pyroclastic material. Isotope-geochemical investigations suggest a young undifferentiated arc provenance for Kimmeridgian deposits, whereas Tithonian–Valanginian sediments accumulated due to the erosion of more differentiated igneous rocks and input of clastic material from the continent. New data on changes in sedimentation environments and provenance enabled the tracing of the evolution of the Oloy arc. In the Kimmeridgian, the Oloy island arc existed on a heterogeneous basement, with south-dipping subduction towards the Kolyma–Omolon margin. During the Late Tithonian, the arc accreted and magmatic activity continued in the active margin setting. Collision initiated in the latter half of the Berriasian, reaching its active phase in the Valanginian time.

A peculiar new genus and species of Permian pectinoid Streblopteria -like bivalves, Streblopermia minima gen. et sp. nov., is described from the Lower Changhsingian (Upper Permian) deposits of the Balygychan Block (Northeast Russia). It differs from all known forms in the configuration of the shell, combined with its very small size and a very small anterior ear of the right valve with a very narrow byssal notch.

The results of complex mineralogical and geochemical studies of Upper Permian terrigenous rocks of the orogenic Khangalas gold deposit in the Yana‒Kolyma belt are reported. The petrographic and lithochemical characteristics of the rocks are typical of polymictic sandstones (graywacke), oligomictic graywackle siltstones, and mudstones. The terrigenous component of the Upper Permian sediments is a product of erosion of rocks with a predominant acidic and less basic composition, as well as graywacke. The presence of a volcanogenic material is characteristic. The formation of thick units of polymictic sandstones (graywacke) with interlayers of oligomictic siltstones and mudstones is related to the high-rate sedimentation in delta complexes and periodic sea-level fluctuations. The changing redox conditions of the bottom water were a favorable factor for mobilization of ore elements and formation of diagenetic sulfide mineralization of rocks. The regional and dislocational metamorphism processes are characterized by the removal of Si4+, Al3+, Ca2+, Fe2+, and Mg2+ into the pore space and by enriching the interporous expelled water with these elements. Hydrothermal changes involved the supply of Al3+, Ca2+, Fe2+, Mg2+, Sb, Au, Ag, Co, Ni, Cd, and Te and the formation of geochemical associations of Au with chalcophylic (As, Sb, S, and Cd) and lithophylic (Na, Ca, P, Mn, Be, Mg, and W) elements. The connection of Au with a group of newly formed minerals (pyrite, arsenopyrite, siderite, and sericite) is emphasized. The increased concentration of W and Mo indicates their entry in the composition of the high-temperature fluid related to a magmatic source characteristic of the superimposed Ag‒Sb mineralization. The lithogenesis processes contribute to the formation of the mineralogical and geochemical specialization of the host rocks, favorable for the occurrence of disseminated mineralization with isomorphically bound gold at the Khangalas deposit. The results obtained are important for the truthful understanding of the effect of the environment on the ore formation conditions in slightly metamorphosed complexes of collisional terranes and forecasting orogenic gold deposits.

The Late Ordovician and Early Silurian conodont faunas of northeast Russia are described, based on 39 conodont-bearing samples collected from Kanyon, Padun, Tirekhtyakh, Maut, and lower Sandugan Formations at Mirny Creek and Ina River sections, Omulev Mountains. The faunas are represented by a total of 776 identifiable conodont specimens assigned to 35 species representing 25 genera, among which a new species, Periodon mirnyensis, is established. Based on graptolite zones at the same locality and other conodont faunas worldwide, the faunas are assigned to the Caradocian, early Ashgillian, late Ashigillian, early Llandovery, and late Llandovery. The Ordovician faunas belong to outer platform to upper slope facies with a North Atlantic Realm affinity; the Silurian faunas are from slope and basin facies. The conodont faunas are the first to be described from the Kolyma Terrane, which has an enigmatic paleogeographic position during the Early Paleozoic.