Joan Madurell-Malapeira

Pleistocene rodents from the Torrent de Vallparadís section (Terrassa, northeastern Spain) and biochronological implications

ABSTRACT In this paper, the rodents from the composite section of Torrent de Vallparadís (Terrassa, northeastern Spain) are described, with particular emphasis on the arvicolines. Due to their wide geographical distributions and rapid evolutionary rates, arvicolines are especially useful for biostratigraphical purposes. Eight stratigraphic layers have yielded rodent remains, including representatives of the genera Mimomys, Allophaiomys, Stenocranius, Iberomys, Microtus, Arvicola, Apodemus, Eliomys, and Hystrix. The presence of different rodent species, together with the available magnetostratigraphic data, allows a precise determination of the age of each layer and a detailed correlation with other Spanish Pleistocene sites, particularly those of the Sierra de Atapuerca. The complete studied sequence ranges from the pre-Jaramillo Biharian (1.4–1.2 Ma) to the early Toringian (less than 0.6 Ma.), constituting one of the most complete sequences of the Spanish Pleistocene and covering a time span of especial relevance in relation to the earliest human dispersal into western Europe.

50,000 years of genetic uniformity in the critically endangered Iberian lynx

Low genetic diversity in the endangered Iberian lynx, including lack of mitochondrial control region variation, is thought to result from historical or Pleistocene/Holocene population bottlenecks, and to indicate poor long‐term viability. We find no variability in control region sequences from 19 Iberian lynx remains from across the Iberian Peninsula and spanning the last 50 000 years. This is best explained by continuously small female effective population size through time. We conclude that low genetic variability in the Iberian lynx is not in itself a threat to long‐term viability, and so should not preclude conservation efforts.

Carnivora from the Late Early Pleistocene of Cal Guardiola (Terrassa, Vallès-Penedès Basin, Catalonia, Spain)

The paleontological site of Cal Guardiola (UTM 31T DG1702), on the western bank of the Torrent de Vallparadis (Terrassa, Catalonia, Spain), was discovered in early 1997 during the construction of a socio-sanitary building next to the Mutua de Terrassa. A report on the geology and stratigraphy of Cal Guardiola was published by Berastegui et al. (2000), including a preliminary report on the fauna. This preliminary study suggested an estimated age for Cal Guardiola of ca. 1.0 Ma (Berastegui et al., 2000). Unpublished paleomagnetic analyses, carried out by Miguel Garces, indicate a reverse magnetization for the sampled sediments, which can be correlated to below the Brunhes-Matuyama geomagnetic boundary (pers. com. of M. Garces in Postigo Mijarra et al., 2007), thus being older than 0.8 Ma. This dating roughly corresponds to the later part of the Epivillafranchian biochron (1.2 to 0.9 Ma), which in Europe is best represented by the faunal assemblages from Untermassfeld in Germany, Le Vallonnet in France, and Colle Curti and Slivia in Italy (Palombo et al., 2008 and references therein). The faunal assemblage from Cal Guardiola represents one of the latest Epivillafranchian faunas from Europe and thus deserves particular attention for unraveling the chronology of the dispersal events that took place during the Epivillafranchian-Galerian turnover. However, thus far only the primate remains from Cal Guardiola have been published (Alba et al., 2008), while the rest of the fauna remains unpublished. Here we describe the carnivore remains from Cal Guardiola, which record one of the latest occurrences of the hyenid Pachycrocuta in Europe and further attests the coexistence of two distinct ursid lineages by the latest Early Pleistocene in Europe. Institutions .—All the specimens included in this study are housed at the Institut Catala de Paleontologia (acronym IPS). Measurements .—Co: length of occipital condyles; DTP: proximal mediolateral diameter; …

The Latest European Painted Dog

JOAN MADURELL-MALAPEIRA,*,1 LORENZO ROOK,2 BIENVENIDO MARTÍNEZ-NAVARRO,3,4,5 DAVID M. ALBA,1,6 JOSEP AURELL-GARRIDO,1 and SALVADOR MOYÀ-SOLÀ1,3; 1Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Edifici ICP, Campus de la UAB s/n, Cerdanyola del Vallès, 08193, Barcelona, Spain, joan.madurell@icp.cat; david.alba@icp.cat; josep.aurell@icp.cat; salvador.moya@icp.cat; 2Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università di Firenze, via G. La Pira, 4, 50121 Firenze, Italy, Lorenzo.rook@unifi.it; 3ICREA, Barcelona, Spain; 4Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social (IPHES), C/ Marcellı́ Domingo s/n, Campus Sescelades URV (Edifici W3), 43007 Tarragona, Spain, bienvenido.martinez@icrea.cat; 5Àrea de Prehistoria, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, 43002 Tarragona, Spain; 6Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università degli Studi di Torino, Via Valperga Caluso 35, 10125 Torino, Italy

Oldest European occurence of Meles (Mustelidae, Carnivora) from the Middle Pliocene (Mn16) of Almenara-Casablanca-4 Karstic Site (Castellón, Spain)

The origin of badgers (Subfamily Melinae) and the early evolutionary history of the genus Meles Brisson, 1762 remain still unresolved. Fossil, morphologic and genetic evidence suggest that only Meles and Arctonyx Cuvier, 1825 are closely related among extant badger genera (Petter, 1971; Bryant et al., 1993; Koepfli et al., 2008). Petter (1971) suggested that Meles, Arctonyx and Arctomeles Stach, 1951 evolved from an ancient “Meles” stock during the beginning of Late Pliocene. The origin of this lineage probably occurred in Asia during the Early Pliocene; afterwards, the Meles lineage spread to the west into Europe between the Late Pliocene and Early Pleistocene (Neal and Cheeseman, 1996). Recently, Koepfli et al. (2008) pointed that Arctonyx and Meles diverged in Eurasia between 4.4 and 3.6 MYA. At present, the Eurasian badger (Meles meles Linnaeus, 1758) has a Palearctic distribution, ranging from the Iberian Peninsula to Japan, including Palestine, southern China, Western Siberia and Great Britain, showing a wide morphologic variability across its range, which complicates its taxonomy at the intraespecific level. On the other hand, the hog badger (Arctonyx collaris Cuvier, 1825) is distributed across South-eastern Asia (China, Bhutan, Assam, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and Sumatra) (Neal and Cheeseman, 1996). Historically, the oldest record of the genus Meles in Europe corresponded to Meles gennevauxi Viret, 1939 from the Early Pliocene of Montpellier (Viret, 1939). Recently, some authors have transferred this form to the genus Arctomeles (Tedford and Harrington, 2003 and references therein). Arctomeles pliocaenicus Stach, 1951, from the Early Pliocene of Weze-1 (Poland) (Stach, 1951), is the type species of this genus, where Parameles ferus Roshchin, 1949 must be also included (Roshchin, 1949; Tedford and Harrington, 2003 and references therein). Therefore according to this revision, the genus Arctomeles includes these five taxa: A. pliocaenicus, A. gennevauxi, A. suillus Teilhard and LeRoy, 1945, A. ferus and A. sotnikovae Tedford and Harrington, 2003. Up to now, six species and one subspecies of the genus Meles have been reported from the Late Pliocene to the Middle Pleistocene: M. thorali Viret, 1951 from Saint-Vallier (France) and Vatera (Greece); M. iberica Arribas and Garrido, 2007 from Fonelas P-1 (Spain); M. dimitrius Koufos, 1992 from Gerakarou and Apollonia-1 (Greece); M. hollitzeri Raebeder, 1976 from Untermassfeld (Germany) and Deutsch-Altenburg 2 (Austria); M. thorali spelaeus Bonifay, 1971 from Lunel-Viel (France); M. atavus Kormos, 1914 from Beftia 5 (Hungary) and the extant badger M. meles (Kormos, 1914; Viret, 1951; Bonifay, 1971; Raebeder, 1976; Koufos, 1992; Wolsan, 2001; Arribas and Garrido, 2007). The latter species is the most frequent mustelid in the European late Palaeolithic subfossil record suggesting a widespread distribution of this species during the Last Glacial (Sommer and Benecke, 2004). However, the distribution of the badger lineage throughout the European Plio-Pleistocene is poorly known. Forms similar to Meles thorali from the mid Villafranchian of China suggest that this species was widespread throughout the Paleartic region since its origins (Neal and Cheeseman, 1996). The discovery of badger remains close to the Plio-Pleistocene boundary is highly significant to elucidate the ancient history of Meles, especially in Western Europe, far away from the most likely area of origin of this genus. In the Early Pleistocene from the Iberian Peninsula, Meles has been reported from Venta Micena, Barranco León 5, Fuente Nueva 3 and Trinchera Dolina (TDE5) in Atapuerca (Garcı́a, 2003; Martı́nez-Navarro et al., 2003 and references therein). However, the scarcity of remains from these localities has thus far prevented their determination at the species level. In this paper, we report new material of Meles cf. thorali from the Middle Pliocene (MN16) of Almenara-Casablanca-4 (ACB-4) (Castellón, Spain). Abbreviations—ACB, Almenara-Casablanca, Almenara, Spain; IPS, Institut de Paleontologia M. Crusafont, Sabadell, Spain; ICP, Institut Català de Paleontologia, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Spain.

The taxonomic status of European Plio-Pleistocene badgers

ABSTRACT The taxonomic status of European Plio-Pleistocene badgers is currently uncertain, due to the relative scarcity of their fossil remains. Here we describe craniodental remains from the Iberian locality of Vallparadís, indicating that the extant European badger (Meles meles) was distributed throughout Europe during the late Villafranchian. On the basis of morphological and morphometrical comparisons, we attribute the studied specimens, together with other late Villafranchian and Epivillafranchian badgers from Europe, to M. meles atavus, thereby considering that M. hollitzeri and M. dimitrius (in part) are subjective junior synonyms of the former. Only the early to middle Villafranchian M. thorali can be considered a distinct species, with M. iberica and M. dimitrius (in part) being subjective junior synonyms of this other species. It is concluded that extant European badger species must have diverged from Asian badgers before the top of the Olduvai subchron. Available molecular and paleontological data are consistent with an Asian origin of the Meles lineage, and with M. thorali being the ancestral species that dispersed into Europe attaining a wholly Palearctic distribution by the early Villafranchian. Later, before the top of the Olduvai subchron, M. thorali might have given rise to both the European and Asian badger lineages through a vicariance process prompted by paleoclimatic changes.

Late Pleistocene leopards as a bone accumulator: taphonomic results from S’Espasa cave and other Iberian key sites

Abstract The Pleistocene faunal accumulations documented in caves have commonly been attributed to the activity of humans or carnivores. According to the palaeontological and archaeological literature, cave hyena (Crocuta spelaea) was the main known bone accumulator in karstic environments. However, in recent times, the role of leopards as bone accumulators has been revealed, and recent research has identified this behaviour in the Iberian Pleistocene. Moreover, there are other caves where leopard could have been claimed as an accumulator such as S’Espasa. In this work we present its taphonomic study. This cave was compared with the actualistic studies of leopards. Besides, the site of S’Espasa was compared with the other leopard dens in the Iberian Peninsula. These sites present faunal assemblages composed mainly by leopard (Panthera pardus) and Iberian wild goat (Capra pyrenaica), the bones of this ungulate present a similar pattern of bone modification by carnivores, skeletal survival rate, and bone breakage. These features indicate that goats could have been accumulated by leopards. With the data from this work and the previous ones, we try to establish a pattern that will help in the future to identify other accumulations created by this big cat.

Lynx remains from the Pleistocene of Valdemino cave (Savona, Northwestern Italy), and the oldest occurrence of Lynx spelaeus (Carnivora, Felidae)

Fossil lynxes are quite common in the Plio-Pleistocene mammal assemblages of Europe. Despite of this abundant record, the phylogeny of the genus Lynx and the relationships among the different recorded species are far from being resolved. The most controversial species of this group is Lynx pardinus spelaeus or Lynx spelaeus according to different scholars, recorded in the Middle and Late Pleistocene of France and Italy. Here, we describe unpublished remains of fossil lynxes from different layers of the Valdemino cave (Middle to Late Pleistocene, Savona, Italy). The reported evidence suggests that the lynx from Valdemino represents probably the most ancient well-documented material of L. spelaeus in Europe further reinforcing the idea of progressive size reduction and acquisition of more trenchant dentition in the European lineages of lynx (L. pardinus and L. spelaeus) during the Middle to Late Pleistocene.

Cynotherium malatestai, sp. nov. (Carnivora, Canidae) from the early middle Pleistocene deposits of Grotta dei Fiori (Sardinia, Western Mediterranean)

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Les Cases de la Valenciana, a new early Miocene small-mammal locality from the Vallès-Penedès Basin (Catalonia, Spain)

Abstract The Valles-Penedes Basin (Catalonia, Spain) is classical area for the study of Miocene land mammal faunas. Nevertheless, the early Miocene part of the record has deserved little attention as compared to younger intervals. Most notably, the small mammals of this age have not been described in detail, consequently hampering the correlation of the Valles-Penedes record with other chronological schemes. In this work we describe the rich and diverse small mammal fauna from Les Cases de la Valenciana site (Gelida, Alt Penedès) which includes marsupials, eulipotyphlans, lagomorphs and rodents. On the basis of the presence of the cricetids Megacricetodon and Democricetodon this site is correlated with European Neogene zone MN4, yielding an age of 17–16 Ma. However, the rodent assemblage is comparable to that of chronologically close localities of the Calatayud-Montalbán Basin (Aragon, Spain), indicating that the same biochronological scheme can be applied to both areas. In this way, the coexistence of the eomyids Ligerimys ellipticus and Ligerimys florancei coupled with the presence of Megacricetodon primitivus indicates a correlation with local biozone Ca of the Calatayud-Montalban Basin, ranging from 16.3 to 16 Ma. Finally, the correlation of other early Miocene sites of the Valles-Penedes Basin is discussed and refined.