Bone accumulation by leopards in the Late Pleistocene in the Moncayo Massif (Zaragoza, NE Spain)

Eating habits of Panthera pardus are well known. When there are caves in its territory, prey accumulates inside them. This helps to prevent its kill from being stolen by other predators like hyenas. Although the leopard is an accumulator of bones in caves, few studies have been conducted on existing lairs. There are, however, examples of fossil vertebrate sites whose main collecting agent is the leopard. During the Late Pleistocene, the leopard was a common carnivore in European faunal associations. Here we present a new locality of Quaternary mammals with a scarce human presence, the cave of Los Rincones (province of Zaragoza, Spain); we show the leopard to be the main accumulator of the bones in the cave, while there are no interactions between humans and leopards. For this purpose, a taphonomic analysis is performed on different bone-layers of the cave

Los Batanes (Biescas, Spain), a roost site for horseshoe bats in the Pyrenees during the late Pleistocene

Los Batanes C4 is a cave-site in the Spanish Pyrenees, the minimum sediment calendar age was determined to be 15, 234 ± 223 cal BP by radiocarbon dating. The cave opens on the northern bank of an eastern tributary of the River Gállego, at an altitude of 1025 m. The small vertebrates recorded are mainly bats, in order of abundance Rhinolophus euryale, R. ferrumequinum, Myotis sp. and Miniopterus schreibersii. The association suggests that at the time of the accumulation the climate was reasonably similar to the current climate; we situate it within a period of local retreat of the ice-cover in the Gállego Valley during the Lateglacial. This is the highest record of these species of Rhinolophus in the Iberian Quaternary, showing that the R. euryale altitudinal range was similar to its extant range during the favourable periods of the Lateglacial. This could indicate that this taxon was relatively quick in spreading into higher regions whenever climate conditions allowed it

Pleistocene cave hyenas in the Iberian Peninsula: New insights from los aprendices cave (Moncayo, Zaragoza)

A new Pleistocene paleontological site, Los Aprendices, located in the northwest-ern part of the Iberian Peninsula in the area of the Moncayo (Zaragoza) is presented. The layer with fossil remains has been dated by amino acid racemization to 143.8 ± 38.9 ka (earliest Late Pleistocene or latest Middle Pleistocene). Five mammal species have been identified in the assemblage: Crocuta spelaea (Goldfuss, 1823) Capra pyre-naica (Schinz, 1838), Lagomorpha indet, Arvicolidae indet and Galemys pyrenaicus (Geoffroy, 1811). The remains of C. spelaea represent a mostly complete skeleton in anatomical semi-connection. The hyena specimen represents the most complete skel-eton ever recovered in Iberia and one of the most complete remains in Europe. It has been compared anatomically and biometrically with both European cave hyenas and extant spotted hyenas. In addition, a taphonomic study has been carried out in order to understand the origin and preservation of these exceptional remains. The results sug-gest rapid burial with few scavenging modifications putatively produced by a medium sized carnivore. A review of the Pleistocene Iberian record of Crocuta spp. has been carried out, enabling us to establish one of the earliest records of C. spelaea in the recently discovered Los Aprendices cave, and also showing that the most extensive geographical distribution of this species occurred during the Late Pleistocene (MIS4-2)

El Curso Mamíferos del Pirineo, 2012-2018

[No abstract available

Funerary practices or food delicatessen? Human remains with anthropic marks from the Western Mediterranean Mesolithic

The identification of unarticulated human remains with anthropic marks in archaeological contexts normally involves solving two issues: a general one associated with the analysis and description of the anthropic manipulation marks, and another with regard to the interpretation of their purpose. In this paper we present new evidence of anthropophagic behaviour amongst hunter-gatherer groups of the Mediterranean Mesolithic. A total of 30 human remains with anthropic manipulation marks have been found in the Mesolithic layers of Coves de Santa Maira (Castell de Castells, Alicante, Spain), dating from ca. 10.2-9 cal ky BP. We describe the different marks identified on both human and faunal remains at the site (lithic, tooth, percussion and fire marks on bone cortex). As well as describing these marks, and considering that both human and faunal remains at the site present similar depositional and taphonomic features, this paper also contextualizes them within the archaeological context and subsistence patterns described for Mesolithic groups in the region. We cannot entirely rule out the possibility that these practices may be the result of periodic food stress suffered by the human populations. These anthropophagic events at the site coincide with a cultural change at the regional Epipalaeolithic-Mesolithic transition

Taphonomic Criteria for Identifying Iberian Lynx Dens in Quaternary Deposits

For decades, taphonomists have dedicated their efforts to assessing the nature of the massive leporid accumulations recovered at archaeological sites in the northwestern Mediterranean region. Their interest lying in the fact that the European rabbit constituted a critical part of human subsistence during the late Pleistocene and early Holocene. However, rabbits are also a key prey in the food webs of Mediterranean ecosystems and the base of the diet for several specialist predators, including the Iberian lynx (Lynx pardinus). For this reason, the origin of rabbit accumulations in northwestern Mediterranean sites has proved a veritable conundrum. Here, we present the zooarchaeological and taphonomic study of more than 3000 faunal and 140 coprolite remains recovered in layer IIIa of Cova del Gegant (Catalonia, Spain). Our analysis indicates that this layer served primarily as a den for the Iberian lynx. The lynxes modified and accumulated rabbit remains and also died at the site creating an accumulation dominated by the two taxa. However, other agents and processes, including human, intervened in the final configuration of the assemblage. Our study contributes to characterizing the Iberian lynx fossil accumulation differentiating between the faunal assemblages accumulated by lynxes and hominins

Historical biogeography of the leopard (Panthera pardus) and its extinct Eurasian populations

Background: Resolving the historical biogeography of the leopard (Panthera pardus) is a complex issue, because patterns inferred from fossils and from molecular data lack congruence. Fossil evidence supports an African origin, and suggests that leopards were already present in Eurasia during the Early Pleistocene. Analysis of DNA sequences however, suggests a more recent, Middle Pleistocene shared ancestry of Asian and African leopards. These contrasting patterns led researchers to propose a two-stage hypothesis of leopard dispersal out of Africa: an initial Early Pleistocene colonisation of Asia and a subsequent replacement by a second colonisation wave during the Middle Pleistocene. The status of Late Pleistocene European leopards within this scenario is unclear: were these populations remnants of the first dispersal, or do the last surviving European leopards share more recent ancestry with their African counterparts? Results: In this study, we generate and analyse mitogenome sequences from historical samples that span the entire modern leopard distribution, as well as from Late Pleistocene remains. We find a deep bifurcation between African and Eurasian mitochondrial lineages (~ 710 Ka), with the European ancient samples as sister to all Asian lineages (~ 483 Ka). The modern and historical mainland Asian lineages share a relatively recent common ancestor (~ 122 Ka), and we find one Javan sample nested within these. Conclusions: The phylogenetic placement of the ancient European leopard as sister group to Asian leopards suggests that these populations originate from the same out-of-Africa dispersal which founded the Asian lineages. The coalescence time found for the mitochondrial lineages aligns well with the earliest undisputed fossils in Eurasia, and thus encourages a re-evaluation of the identification of the much older putative leopard fossils from the region. The relatively recent ancestry of all mainland Asian leopard lineages suggests that these populations underwent a severe population bottleneck during the Pleistocene. Finally, although only based on a single sample, the unexpected phylogenetic placement of the Javan leopard could be interpreted as evidence for exchange of mitochondrial lineages between Java and mainland Asia, calling for further investigation into the evolutionary history of this subspecies

Neandertal spatial patterns and occupation dynamics: a regional focus on the central region in Mediterranean Iberia

En el siguiente trabajo se estudian varios conjuntos pertenecientes al Paleolítico medio procedentes del mediterráneo peninsular ibérico con el objetivo de examinar los patrones de ocupación y las estrategias de gestión del territorio. Se presta especial atención al abastecimiento de las materias primas y los comportamientos tecnológicos, los datos procedentes de la fauna y los análisis microespaciales. La variabilidad en los tipos de ocupación de los distintos conjuntos nos muestra una gran diversidad y una multitud de factores, aunque no parece tener una sola explicación cultural, funcional, temporal o ambiental. Más bien son explicaciones que responden a una amplia variabilidad en los comportamientos técnicos observados y que se explican en función de las propias necesidades de las poblaciones dentro de cada región. Los resultados obtenidos nos permiten analizar los datos y compararlos en el contexto del sudoeste de Europa de cara a elaborar un primer enfoque de las estrategias de subsistencia de los neandertales y su movilidad en una región hasta ahora poco conocida desde este punto de vista.HAR2017-85,153-P/MICINNPROMETEO/2017/060HAR2016-76,760-C3-1-P/MICINNThis paper focuses on the study of some Middle Palaeolithic assemblages from Mediterranean Iberia to examine Neanderthal occupation patterns and territory management strategies, paying special attention to raw material procurement and technological behaviours, zooarchaeological data and microspatial patterning. The site occupation types are variable, and some of the results may have more importance than is immediately apparent, but there does not seem to be a single cultural, functional, temporal or environmental explanation. Rather, the wide variability in the technical behaviours observed can be explained with reference to the particular requirements of the populations in each specific region. The results obtained allow us to interrogate the data and, drawing comparisons with the southwest European context, establish an initial approach to Neanderthal subsistence strategies and mobility in a region so far little known in this regard