Journal
PALAEOGEOGRAPHY PALAEOCLIMATOLOGY PALAEOECOLOGY
Volume 535, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
ELSEVIER
DOI: 10.1016/j.palaeo.2019.109365
Keywords
Chiroptera; Taxonomy; Taphonomy; Landscape; Shannon Index; Habitat Weighting
Funding
- MINECO Projects [CGL2012-38434-C03-01, CGL2015-65387-C3-2-P, CGL2013-46169 C2-1-P]
- Grupos de Investigacion del Gobierno de Aragon: GRUPO DE REFERENCIA ARAGOSAURUS: RECURSOS GEOLOGICOS Y PALEOAMBIENTALES [E18_17R]
- Gobierno de Aragon
- Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport [FPU14/05528]
- Ramon y Cajal contract [RYC-2016-19386]
- FSE
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Bat remains occur in low numbers in Pleistocene cave assemblages compared to other small vertebrates, and therefore are rarely used as palaeoenvironmental or palaeoclimatic indicators. In this study we address the correlation between bat palaeocommunity dynamics and climate and environmental factors by analysing the fossil bat record throughout the Lower to Middle Pleistocene Gran Dolina sequence of Atapuerca, Spain. We show that the palaeodiversity and palaeoclimatic markers employed in our bats-based approach provide coherent results with other palaeoclimatic indicators. We report a general impoverishment of bat palaeocommunities towards the upper section of the sequence that correlates with evidence of climate deterioration based on palynological analysis and data from other small vertebrates groups. We also find that the occupational pattern of the dominant bat species Myotis myotis changes at the top of the sequence, from a probable all-year occupation to a seasonal, winter use of the cave, which could be related to the onset of human occupation of the cave-site. Finally, we note that while the Habitat Weighting analysis of bat assemblages is correlated to independent palaeoenvironmental proxies, such bats-based approaches show an overrepresentation of woodland habitats in comparison to other small vertebrates indicators.
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