Hugues-Alexandre Blain

The Early-Middle Pleistocene environmental and climatic change and the human expansion in Western Europe: A case study with small vertebrates (Gran Dolina, Atapuerca, Spain).

The dispersal of hominins may have been favored by the opening of the landscape during the Early-Middle Pleistocene transition (EMP) in Western Europe. The structure of the small-vertebrate assemblages of the archaeo-paleontological karstic site of Gran Dolina in Atapuerca (Burgos, Spain) shows important environmental and climatic changes in the faunal succession, across the Matuyama-Brunhes boundary at 780xa0ka. These changes are interpreted to indicate impoverishment of the forests, along with an increase in dry meadows, and open lands in general that entailed a tendency towards the loss of diversity in small-vertebrate communities above the EMP. We evaluate variation in diversity of the faunal succession of Gran Dolina using Shannons Second Theorem as an index of ecosystem structure. The long cultural-stratigraphic sequence of Gran Dolina during the EMP is somewhat similar in its completeness and continuity to that in the locality of Gesher Benot Yaaqov in the Upper Jordan Valley. We also evaluate related data including faunal and floral (pollen) succession. Both localities present cold, dry and humid, warm fluctuations at the transition between the Early and the Middle Pleistocene. Comparisons between these sites present opportunities to understand large-scale climatic changes.

First fossil evidence of an “interglacial refugium” in the Pyrenean region

A refugium is generally understood as an area where temperate species survive cold periods, such as the Iberian, Italian, or Balkan Peninsulas in Europe. Strictly speaking, this definition refers to what is known as a glacial refugium. However, there are various types of lesser-known refugia such as the interglacial refugium, which denotes a mountainous region at low latitudes, such as the Pyrenees, where species adapted to the cold survive during interstadial periods. The small-vertebrate association from the sequence of Cova Colomera, which is located on the southern face of the Pyrenees and contains the final cold spell of the Late Pleistocene and the beginnings of the temperate period in which we currently find ourselves (the Holocene), could constitute the first fossil evidence of such an interglacial refugium, thus providing new paleoecological data on the phenomenon.

Neanderthal Landscapes and Their Home Environment: Flora and Fauna Records from Level J

The aim of this chapter is to understand, from a multidisciplinary approach, Neanderthal landscapes and environment from layer J records from Abric Romani rockshelter. The proxy data used are paleontological and paleobotanical records with natural or anthropic orgin. This study includes pollen, charcoal, small vertebrates (micromammals and anphibians), large mammals and malacofauna. The data yielded through these disciplines approached on the basis of different methodologies (anthracology, palynology, paleontology, and dental microwear and mesowear) provide an assemblage of data showing different aspects of the Neanderthal landscapes and environment. These proxies show a diverse landscape with forested and open landscape areas under a cold environment, which locally has yielded taxa reflecting more humidity rates and the presence of Mediterranean taxa reflecting a cooler climate. In this context, Neanderthals exploited a variety of biotopes for the obtaining of resources, pointing out their adaptability capabilities.