Aurora Grandal-d'Anglade

A population study on the cave bear (Ursus spelaeus Ros.-Hein.)) from Cova Eirós (Triacastela, Galicia, Spain)

Abstract The Cova Eiros site is at present the most western euroasiatic limit of the distribution of this species. To date, close to 4,000 bones, mainly Ursus spelaeus,, have been found. Absolute dating (U/Th) carried out on the stalagmaitic flows below the fertile levels give an age between 117,000 and 28,000 years BP 14CC, whilst dating of a bone has given an age of 24,090 years BP. The taphonomic study discounts the existence of post mortem selective processes in the formation of the deposit. The population study indicates occupation of the site by bears of both sexes, being used during hibernation by both adult males and adult females, pregnant and/or with cubs. Distribution by age of the population has been possible by carrying out a study on the wear stages of the cheek teeth. The distribution by age shows a low mortality rate for adult bears (7%) whilst the mortality rate for neonates and yearlings was high (73%). The disappearence of this population can therefore be attributed to the aforementioned high mortality rate aswell as the isolation of the population during the development of glaciers during the last glacial period.

Mitochondrial DNA of pre-last glacial maximum red deer from NW Spain suggests a more complex phylogeographical history for the species

Abstract The major climatic oscillations that characterized the Quaternary had a great influence on the evolution and distribution of several species. During cold periods, the distribution of temperate‐adapted species became fragmented with many surviving in southern refugia (Iberian, Italian, and Balkan Peninsulas). Red deer was one of the species that contracted its original range to southern refugia. Currently, two main lineages have been described for the species: western and eastern. We have analyzed fossils pre‐dating the last glacial maximum (LGM) from Liñares cave (NW Spain) that belongs to the peripheral range of the western clade, and fossils from the Danish Holocene belonging to the central part of the same clade. Phylogenetic analyses place our samples in the western clade. However, some specimens from Liñares represent an early split in the tree along with other pre‐LGM western samples from previous studies. Despite low bootstrap values in the Bayesian phylogenies, haplotype networks connect these foreign haplotypes to the eastern clade. We suggest a mixed phylogeographical model to explain this pattern with range expansions from the east during the expansion phase after the cold periods in marine isotope stage 3. We find slight isolation by distance in post‐LGM populations that could be a consequence of the recolonization from southern refugia after the LGM.