There is a region between Russia and Mongolia (and a bit of China and Kazakhstan) where the Altai and Sayan mountains meet where an interesting mixture of mammals live - a combination that do not normally live together now anywhere else, but that were very similar to Ice-age mammal communities, except for the lack of mammoths. It is a cold, arid area without much snow, allowing for grasses that feed many of these mammals and very similar conditions to the last ice age. Reindeer, horses, saiga antelopes (which have been called the world's strangest-looking antelope), and wolverines live there (plus many more mammals!), and they may have found the region to be a refugium they could survive in during the last glacial period.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22129533.800-iceage-animals-live-on-in-eurasian-mountain-range.html
The World Wildlife Federation says that the Altai-Sayan region contains:
600 species of mosses
1200 species of lichens
3500 species of plants
(16% rare or endangered, 9% endemic, or native only to that region)
77 species of fish
8 species of amphibians
25 species of reptiles
425 species of birds
143 species of mammals
39 of these vertebrates are endemic.
It is not very well-explored, and is relatively untouched.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22129533.800-iceage-animals-live-on-in-eurasian-mountain-range.html
The World Wildlife Federation says that the Altai-Sayan region contains:
600 species of mosses
1200 species of lichens
3500 species of plants
(16% rare or endangered, 9% endemic, or native only to that region)
77 species of fish
8 species of amphibians
25 species of reptiles
425 species of birds
143 species of mammals
39 of these vertebrates are endemic.
It is not very well-explored, and is relatively untouched.
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