A new site from the Spanish Middle Pleistocene with cold-resistant faunal elements: La Parte (Asturias,Spain) |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Departamento de Geología, Universidad de Oviedo, C/ Jesús Arias Velasco s/n 33005 Oviedo, Spain;2. Laboratory for Human Evolutionary Studies, Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of California 3101 Valley Life Sciences Building Berkeley, CA 94720-3160, USA;3. Centro de Evolución y Comportamiento Humanos, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, C/Sinesio Delgado 4, Pabellón 14, 28029 Madrid, Spain;1. IPHES, Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social, Zona educacional 4 (Edifici W3), Campus Sescelades URV, 43007, Tarragona, Spain;2. Àrea de Prehistòria, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Fac. de Lletres, Av. Catalunya 35, 43002, Tarragona, Spain;3. Dipartimento di Lettere e Filosofia, Università degli Studi di Trento, via T. Gar 14, 38122, Trento, Italy;4. School of Physical Sciences, Institute for Photonics and Advanced Sensing (IPAS), University of Adelaide, North Terrace, Adelaide, SA, 5005, Australia;5. School of Physical Sciences, Environment Institute, and Institute for Photonics and Advanced Sensing (IPAS), University of Adelaide, North Terrace, Adelaide, SA, 5005, Australia;6. Département de Préhistoire, Muséum national d''Histoire naturelle, UMR7194, 1, rue René Panhard, 75013, Paris, France;7. Sezione di Scienze Preistoriche e Antropologiche, Dipartamento di Studi Umanistici, Università degli Studi di Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy;8. ICREA, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain;1. Museu de Prehistòria de València, Servei d''Investigació Prehistòrica, Diputació de València, València, Spain;2. Grupo Aragosaurus-IUCA, Departamento de Ciencias de la Tierra, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain;3. Club d''Espeleologia l''Avern, Ontinyent, Spain;4. Museu Arqueològic d''Ontinyent i la Vall d''Albaida (MAOVA), Ontinyent, Spain;5. Departament de Prehistòria i Arqueologia, Universitat de València, València, Spain |
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| Abstract: | The La Parte (Asturias) northern Spain site contains a cold-adapted mammal faunal assemblage that corresponds to a level radiometrically dated to a minimum age of 150 ka. It represents the most ancient site with cold resistant fauna in the Iberian Peninsula.Among the species recorded in La Parte, Coelodonta antiquitatis and Rangifer tarandus represent the typical cold-adapted large mammal association.The presence of the woolly rhino at La Parte provides relevant environmental information about the Mammoth Steppe. This species was not as abundant in the Middle Pleistocene as during the Late Pleistocene, when its cold-adapted features can be studied from an evolutionary perspective. The remains attributed to R. tarandus suggest an open steppe ecosystem.The presence of Marmota sp. is also confirmed in La Parte. A first interpretation would suggest an alpine or periglacial ecosystem, but based on recent results which do not support the correlation between phylogeny and climatic tolerance for extant species of Marmota (López and Cuenca, 2002. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 186, 311), we propose the presence of this rodent suggests an open landscape with cold conditions.The rest of the taxa included in the La Parte assemblage (Crocuta crocuta, Panthera leo, Cervus elaphus, Megaloceros cf. giganteus, Bison priscus and Equus caballus) are usually associated with typical cold-adapted faunas, but they are also found in woody temperate zones so they do not characterize by themselves a cold period. The faunal association from La Parte suggests a combination of steppic and open woodland ecological conditions. |
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