Search Results (5)

The Early Pleistocene sites of Orce in southeastern Spain, including Fuente Nueva-3 (FN3), Barranco León (BL) and Venta Micena (VM), provide important insights into the earliest hominin populations and Late Villafranchian large mammal communities. Dated to approximately 1.4 million years ago, FN3 and BL preserve abundant Oldowan tools, cut marks and a human primary tooth, indicating hominin activity. VM, approximately 1.6 million years old, is an outstanding site because it preserves an exceptionally rich assemblage of large mammals and predates the presence of hominins, providing a context for pre-human conditions in the region. Research suggests that both hominins and giant hyenas were essential to the accumulation of skeletal remains at FN3 and BL, with secondary access to meat resources exploited by saber-toothed felids. This aim of this study aims to correlate the relative abundance of large herbivores at these sites with their estimates of Carrying Capacity (CC) and Total Available Biomass (TAB) using the PSEco model, which incorporates survival and mortality profiles to estimate these parameters in paleoecosystems. Our results show: (i) similarities between quarries VM3 and VM4 and (ii) similarities of these quarries with BL-D (level D), suggesting a similar formation process; (iii) that the role of humans would be secondary in BL-D and FN3-LAL (Lower Archaeological Level), although with a greater human influence in FN3-LAL due to the greater presence of horses and small species; and (iv) that FN3-UAL (Upper Archaeological Level) shows similarities with the expected CC values for FN3/BL, consistent with a natural trap of quicksand scenario, where the large mammal species were trapped according to their abundance and body mass, as there is a greater presence of rhinos and mammoths due to the greater weight per unit area exerted by their legs. Given the usefulness of this approach, we propose to apply it first to sites that have been proposed to function as natural traps. Full article

Discussion of the phylogenetic relations between Plesippus, Allohippus, and Equus. Descriptions and illustrations of 30 Equid extant and fossil species younger than 2 Ma. Particular attention is given to slender forms with short protocones usually referred to ‘Equus altidens’ from Süssenborn and Untermassfeld (Germany), Akhalkalaki and Dmanisi (Georgia), Pirro (Italy), Venta Micena (Spain) and Aïn Hanech (Algeria). Occurrence of Asinine features in fossil taxa from Africa, Greece, Mongolia, and North-Eastern Siberia. Supplementary Materials include additional discussions and photographs of fossils in particular from Süssenborn (especially those referred to E. altidens and E. marxi by Reichenau) and from Dmanisi from where a new species is described. Full article

Proteomics methods can identify amino acid sequences in fossil proteins, thus making it possible to determine the ascription or proximity of a fossil to other species. Before mass spectrometry was used to study fossil proteins, earlier studies used antibodies to recognize their sequences. Lowenstein and colleagues, at the University of San Francisco, pioneered the identification of fossil proteins with immunological methods. His group, together with Olivares’s group at the University of Granada, studied the immunological reactions of proteins from the controversial Orce skull fragment (VM-0), a 1.3-million-year-old fossil found at the Venta Micena site in Orce (Granada province, southern Spain) and initially assigned to a hominin. However, discrepancies regarding the morphological features of the internal face of the fossil raised doubts about this ascription. In this article, we review the immunological analysis of the proteins extracted from VM-0 and other Venta Micena fossils assigned to hominins and to other mammals, and explain how these methods helped to determine the species specificity of these fossils and resolve paleontological controversies. Full article

During the last field campaigns in the mammal fossiliferous site Apollonia 1 (Macedonia, Greece), new carnivoran material has been discovered. The new collection added two new carnivoran taxa, Homotherium latidens and Panthera gombaszögensis. The new canid material and the revision of the old one (a) suggest the presence of two Canis species, C. etruscus and C. apolloniensis; (b) confirm the presence of the hypercarnivore Lycaon lycaonoides, and (c) allow for re-classifying the vulpine material to Vulpes praeglacialis. The taxonomic status of the species C. apolloniensis and Meles dimitrius is discussed. The composition and diversity of the Apollonia carnivoran assemblage are estimated and compared to those of various Greek and European Villafranchian ones. The results suggest close similarity to the Venta Micena (Spain) and Dmanisi (Georgia) carnivoran assemblages. The biochronological evidence indicates that Apollonia 1 is younger than Venta Micena and older than Untermassfeld (Germany), suggesting an age of 1.3–1.0 Ma. The study of the carnivoran guild structure of Apollonia 1 in comparison to the modern ones from known environments, as well as their functional morphology, suggest an open habitat, agreeing with previous interpretations. Full article