Paloma Sevilla

The Azokh Cave complex: Middle Pleistocene to Holocene human occupation in the Caucasus.

Azokh Cave is located near the village of the same name in the Nagorno-Karabagh region of the south-eastern part of the Lesser Caucasus (3937.09’ N and 4659.19’ E, 962 metres –a.s.l.). Azokh Cave and other relevant Acheulian sites in the Caucasus (Fig. 1) were described by Lioubine (2002). Together with Mousterian sites (Klein, 1969, 1999; Hoffecker and Cleghorn, 2000; Hoffecker, 2002; Stringer and Andrews, 2005) and sites producing evidence of the Middle-Late Palaeolithic transition (Joris and Adler 2008), the Caucasus region has provided evidence of continuous human settlement of the area throughout the Pleistocene. The geographical location of these sites indicates the persistence of a natural corridor that Lioubine (2002) named the ‘Caucasus isthmus’ and which we describe as the Trans-Caucasian corridor. Based on a geological survey of Quaternary deposits in collaboration with the Armenian Academy of Sciences (Ferna´ndez-Jalvo et al., 2004; King et al., 2003), we observe that the topography of the area has changed considerably due to tectonic compression and periglacial isostasy. This is in agreement with estimations by GPS studies (Mosar, 2006, Mosar et al., 2007) and ESR (Gru¨n et al., 1999) that establishedan uplift rate of12 to14 mm/year or 0.8–1.0 cm/year, respectively. The corridor has changed greatly since the middle Pleistocene, with uplift and erosion altering the landscape, but it is likely that passage through the Caucasian mountains has always been possible. The Trans-Caucasian corridor and other routes via Turkey and towards Asia (Bar-Yosef and Belfer-Cohen, 2001) were migration pathways during the Pleistocene. Fossil humans in the Caucasian area are scarce. The site of Dmanisi in Georgia yielded the earliest known Eurasian hominins (1.7 Ma, Gabunia et al., 2000; Rightmire et al., 2006; Martino´ n- Torres et al., 2008). Late surviving Neanderthals are present at several sites: Mezmaiskaya Cave, in the Northern Caucasus of Russia (30 ka, Skinner et al., 2005), provided remains of late surviving Neanderthals; a mandible of a 2–3 year old Neanderthal child was found at Barakay Cave (North Caucasus; Lubin et al., 2002). Two incisor fragments and one premolar from Kudaro I may be human (Lioubine, 2002). In this context, Azokh Cave fills an important temporal gap. Azokh Cave contains a nearly continuous stratigraphic section from >300 ka to the present, and mandible fragments of Homo heidelbergensis found at the site (Kasimova, 2001) represent the easternmost extent of this species. Here we review the finds of this long forgotten site and present results of our recent work.

Bats from Azokh Caves

Azokh Cave is well-known in the Caucasus not only for its archaeological interest, but also for sheltering large colonies of bats, some of which are rare in the region. During the summer the bat communities in the cave include individuals of at least four different species. Both the Lesser Mouse-eared Bat (Myotis blythii) and Schreiber’s Long-fingered Bats (Miniopterus schreibersii) form large breeding colonies, but abandon the cave during the winter. Another two species, Mehely’s Horseshoe Bat (Rhinolophus mehelyi) and the Greater Horseshoe Bat (Rhinolophus ferrumequinum), can be found roosting in the cave all year round. During the active season, the colonies of R. mehelyi reach several thousand individuals, being the largest grouping of this species known in the Caucasus. Excavations in the sediments preserved in the cave, dating from the late middle Pleistocene to Recent, contain evidence that the same four species have been roosting in Azokh Cave for at least the past 300 kyr, accompanied by several other species. However, species richness and relative abundances have varied during this time interval as shown by the thanatocoenosis preserved in the different layers of Azokh 1. The species represented in these assemblages differ in their habitat preferences, and have been used as a means of interpreting the changes that took place in the surrounding environment during this time, mainly concerning vegetation and forest development.

Youngest agamid lizards from Western Europe (Sierra de Quibas, Spain, late Early Pleistocene)

Here we report a new Early Pleistocene record of agamid lizards (Agamidae indet.) from the Spanish locality of Quibas (ca. 1.3–1.0 Ma), which represents the latest evidence of the family in Western Europe. Up to now, the family Agamidae was considered to have disappeared in this region at 1.8 Ma. This new record implies the survival of agamid lizards for a large part of the Early Pleistocene in the southernmost Iberian Peninsula, probably because of favourable climatic and environmental conditions. Consequently, the formerly detected Pliocene / Pleistocene boundary is no longer recognisable in the evolution of the herpetological assemblages in Western Europe.

Multiproxy evidence for leaf-browsing and closed habitats in extinct proboscideans (Mammalia, Proboscidea) from Central Chile

Significance The multiproxy approach represents a novel methodology and a unique opportunity to obtain a more detailed view of ancient resource use. Our multiproxy study, carried out on gomphotheres from Chile, widens potential occupied habitats to closed-canopy forests. This habitat variability supports the hypothesis that the diet of gomphotheres appears to be more constrained by resource availability than by the potential dietary range. We strongly recommend the use of a multiproxy approach, where morphology analyses are complemented by other sources of information. This approach prevents misleading conclusions about the origin of the proxy’s signal from arising, such as a leaf-browsing diet inferred from the dental calculus and microwear not necessarily being indicative of humidity. Proboscideans are so-called ecosystem engineers and are considered key players in hypotheses about Late Pleistocene megafaunal extinctions. However, knowledge about the autoecology and chronology of the proboscideans in South America is still open to debate and raises controversial views. Here, we used a range of multiproxy approaches and new radiocarbon datings to study the autoecology of Chilean gomphotheres, the only group of proboscideans to reach South America during the Great American Biotic Interchange (∼3.1 to 2.7 million years before present). As part of this study, we analyzed stable isotopes, dental microwear, and dental calculus microfossils on gomphothere molars from 30 Late Pleistocene sites (31° to 42°S). These proxies provided different scales of temporal resolution, which were then combined to assess the dietary and habitat patterns of these proboscideans. The multiproxy study suggests that most foraging took place in relatively closed environments. In Central Chile, there is a positive correlation between lower δ13C values and an increasing consumption of arboreal/scrub elements. Analyses of dental microwear and calculus microfossils have verified these leaf-browsing feeding habits. From a comparative perspective, the dietary pattern of South American gomphotheres appears to be constrained more by resource availability than by the potential dietary range of the individual taxa. This multiproxy study is aimed at increasing knowledge of the life history of gomphotheres and thus follows an issue considered one of the greatest challenges for paleontology in South America, recently pointed out by the need to thoroughly understand the role of ecological engineers before making predictions about the consequences of ecosystem defaunation.

Bats from the classical site of Venta del Moro (Late Miocene, Eastern Spain)

Abstract The presence of bat fossils in localities of fluvio-lacustrine origin is quite uncommon, and usually these remains are poorly preserved or not studied in detail. In the present work we study the bat association of the classical Late Miocene locality of Venta del Moro, which have yielded remains of five taxa of chiropterans. Two new bat species are described in this work: Pipistrellus rouresi sp. nov., a new form to the extremely scarce Neogene register of pipistrelle bats, and the horseshoe bat Rhinolophus antonioi sp. nov. Additionally, we describe the oldest and southernmost record of Myotis podlesicensis, a mouse-eared bat of African origin, as well as an undetermined taxon belonging to the noctule bats, Nyctalus sp., and a further taxon of Vespertilionidae indet. With the description of this new material, the record of Late Miocene bats from Europe is increased. http://www.zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:3B41C73D-9C09-46DA-A77C-1C6F1FB0F014 http://www.zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:82B8A593-6DF5-4CD4-820D-7279E3C6C9D1

How Far into Europe Did Pikas (Lagomorpha: Ochotonidae) Go during the Pleistocene? New Evidence from Central Iberia

This paper reports the first find of pika remains in the Iberian Peninsula, at a site in central Spain. A fragmented mandible of Ochotona cf. pusilla was unearthed from Layer 3 (deposited some 63.4±5.5 ka ago as determined by thermoluminescence) of the Buena Pinta Cave. This record establishes new limits for the genus geographic distribution during the Pleistocene, shifting the previous edge of its known range southwest by some 500 km. It also supports the idea that, even though Europe’s alpine mountain ranges represented a barrier that prevented the dispersal into the south to this and other taxa of small mammals from central and eastern Europe, they were crossed or circumvented at the coldest time intervals of the end of the Middle Pleistocene and of the Late Pleistocene. During those periods both the reduction of the forest cover and the emersion of large areas of the continental shelf due to the drop of the sea level probably provided these species a way to surpass this barrier. The pika mandible was found accompanying the remains of other small mammals adapted to cold climates, indicating the presence of steppe environments in central Iberia during the Late Pleistocene.