New materials of the white rhinoceros Ceratotherium simum and auerochs Bos primigenius from a Late Pleistocene terrace of the Oued el Haï (NE Morocco) - two elements of the Maghrebi Palearctic fauna

Most biogeographers considered the Maghreb to be part of the Palearctic biogeographic region, though it is relatively recently that the proportion of Palearctic species increased there. How and when exactly these biogeographic changes occurred is not well understood, but they are probably the result of the increasing aridification of the Sahara and decreasing global temperatures. Fossils of Bos primigenius and Ceratotherium simum from a new fossil locality in a terrace of the Oued el Haï (NE Morocco) contribute to our understanding of some of these biogeographic processes and their timing. They also suggest an age between ~57 and ~100 ka for the terrace. The same evolutionary change in Bos in Europe and the Maghreb suggests geneflow as the most parsimonious explanation, though parallel evolution is an alternative possibility. Oued el Haï has the oldest well-documented record of C. simum in the Maghreb. The dispersal of this species to North Africa, where it replaced C. mauritanicum, may have occurred during a ‘Green Sahara Period’ between 80–85 or 100–105 ka, when the Maghreb had acquired already a Palearctic character. The study of the biogeography and requirements of the large mammals of the Maghreb may provide information to calibrate the region’s climate modelling.This research was supported / funded by: Palarq Foundation, Spanish Ministry of Culture and Sport under grant numbers 42-T002018N0000042853 and 170-T002019N0000038589); Direction of Cultural Heritage (Ministry of Culture and Communication, Morocco); Faculty of Sciences (Mohamed 1r University of Oujda, Morocco); INSAP (Institut National des Sciences de l’Archéologie et du Patrimoine); Agencia Estatal de Investigación (Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities under grant numbers CGL2016-80975-P, CGL2016-80000-P, PGC2018-095489-B-I00 and PGC2018-093925-B-C31; Synthesys (European Science Foundation) under grant numbers DE-TAF-668, GB-TAF-4119, AT-TAF-3663, DK-TAF-6538; Research Group Support of the Generalitat de Catalunya under grant numbers 2017 SGR 859 and 2017 SGR 836. The research of A.R.-H., J.A., R.S.-R. and M.G.Ch. was supported by ‘CERCA Programme/Genarlitat de Catalunya’. The Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social (IPHES-CERCA) was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation through the ‘María de Maeztu’ program for Units of Excellence under grant number CEX2019-000945-M. The research of I.A.L. was supported by the Humboldt Foundation.Peer reviewe

Le peuplement humain pendant le Pléistocène et l’Holocène dans la province de Jerada, Maroc oriental : introduction d’un projet de recherche

[EN] The Aïn Beni Mathar – Guefaït (ABM-GFT) region in Eastern Morocco is the object of an archaeological, palaeontological, geological and geochronological research project, led by an international team since 2006. The research in this former fluvio-lacustrine basin, roughly 2000 km2, has revealed a significant number of Pleistocene and Holocene sites. Here we introduce the research project, that we conduct in the region, the main issues it aims to address, and the results already obtained.[FR] Depuis 2006, la région de Aïn Beni Mathar – Guefaït (ABM-GFT) au Maroc Oriental, fait l’objet d’un projet de recherche en archéologie, paléontologie, géologie et géochronologie, mené par une équipe internationale. Ces recherches ont permis la découverte d’un nombre significatif de gisements d’âge Pléistocène et Holocène, dans un ancien bassin fluvio-lacustre, qui s’étend sur une surface de 2000 km2. Notre objectif ici est de présenter le projet de recherche, que nous entamons dans la région, la problématique qu’il traite et les premiers résultats déjà obtenus.Funding for this research was provided by: Palarq Foundation, Spanish Ministry of Culture and Sport (Ref: 42-T002018N0000042853 & 170-T002019N0000038589), Direction of Cultural Heritage (Ministry of Culture and Communication, Morocco), Faculty of Sciences (Mohamed 1r University of Oujda, Morocco), INSAP (Institut National des Sciences de l’Archéologie et du Patrimoine), Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (Ref: CGL2016-80975-P, CGL2016-80000-P, PGC2018-095489-B-I00 and PGC2018-093925-B-C31) and Research Groups Support of the Catalonia Government (2017 SGR 836 and 2017 SGR 859). R.S-R, M.G.CH., J.I.M., A.C., F.R., A.R.-H., E.A., I.E., F.B., J.A., HA.B., P.S., P.P., D.L., I.R. y E.M. research is funded by CERCA Programme/ Generalitat de Catalunya. J.I.M. and A.R.-H research is funded by the Spanish Minitry of Science and Innovation under the “María de Maeztu” Program for Unities of Excellence (CEX2019-000945-M). M.S. has been granted by the Research Program UAM Tomás y Valiente 2019. C.T. is funded by the Ramón y Cajal Program. M.F. and M.E.A. received a fellowship under the Erasmus Mundus Scholarship of the European Education and Culture Executive Agency in the Master in Quaternary and Prehistory at URV. The research of M.D. is funded by the Australian Research Council (ARC) Future Fellowship Grant FT150100215 and the Ramón y Cajal Program (RYC2018-025221-I). P.P. has been granted a post-doctoral post under the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation “Juan de la Cierva-Incorporación” Program (Ref. IJC2020-044108-I). E.M-R. is beneficiary of a PTA Ref. PTA201714619-I. G.G.-A. has been granted a “Ford - Apadrina la Ciencia” contract. C.D.-C has been granted a Fundación Atapuerca fellowship. A.C.A. was funded by Junta de Castilla y León (project BU235P18) and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). The Institut Catalá de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social (IPHES-CERCA) has received financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation through the ‘María de Maeztu’ program for Units of Excellence (CEX2019-000945-M).Peer reviewe

A fuzzy expert system for automatic seismic signal classification

Automatic classification of seismic events is of great importance due to the large amount of data received continuously. Seismic analysts classify events by visual inspection and calculation of event signal characteristics. This process is subjective and demands hard work as well as a significant amount of time and considerable experience. A reliable automatic classification task considerably reduces the effort required and makes classification faster and more objective. The aim of this study is to develop a fuzzy rule based expert classification system that is able to imitate human reasoning and incorporate the analyst's knowledge of seismic event classification. The fundamental idea behind using this approach was motivated by the way in which human analysts classify seismic events based on a set of experiential rules. Additionally, this approach was chosen due to its interpretability and adjustability, as well as its ability to manage the complexity of real data. Relevant discriminant features are extracted from event signal. Using these features, the classification system was built based on the vote by multiple rule fuzzy reasoning method with three types of rules. Comparison of this method with the single winner classical fuzzy reasoning model was carried out. Classification results on real seismic data showed the robustness of the classifier and its capability to operate in on-line classification