2 research outputs found
The Atapuerca sites and the Ibeas hominids
The Atapuerca railway Trench and Ibeas sites near Burgos, Spain,
are cave fillings that include a series of deposits ranging from
below the Matuyama/Bruhnes reversal up to the end of Middle
Pleistocene. The lowest fossil-bearing bed in the Trench contains
an assemblage of large and small Mammals including Mimomys
savini, Pitymys gregaloides, Pliomys episcopalis, Crocuta crocuta,
Dama sp. and Megacerini; the uppermost assemblage includes
Canis lupus, Lynx spelaea, Panthera (Leo) fossilis, Felis sylvestris,
Equus caballus steinheimensis, E.c. germanicus, Pitymys subtenaneus,
Microtus arvalis agrestis, Pliomys lenki, and also Panthera
toscana, Dicerorhinus bemitoechus, Bison schoetensacki, which are
equally present in the lowest level. The biostratigraphic correlation
and dates of the sites are briefly discussed, as are the
paleoclimatic interpretation of the Trench sequences. Stone artifacts
are found in several layers; the earliest occurrences correspond
to the upper beds containing Mimomys savini. A set of
preserved human occupation floors has been excavated in the top
fossil-bearing beds. The stone-tool assemblages of the upper levels
are of upper-medial Acheulean to Charentian tradition. The rich
bone breccia SH, in the Cueva Mayor-Cueva del Silo, Ibeas de
Juarros, is a derived deposit, due to a mud flow that dispersed and
carried the skeletons of many carnivores and humans. The taxa
represented are: Vrsus deningeri (largely dominant), Panthera (Leo)
fossilis, Vulpes vulpes, Homo sapiens var. Several traits of both
mandibular and cranial remains are summarized. Preliminary attempts
at dating suggest that the Ibeas fossil man is older than the
Last Interglacial, or oxygen-isotope stage 5