Journal
PALAEOGEOGRAPHY PALAEOCLIMATOLOGY PALAEOECOLOGY
Volume 574, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
ELSEVIER
DOI: 10.1016/j.palaeo.2021.110444
Keywords
Salmonidae; Anguillidae; Cyprinidae; Taxonomy; Taphonomy; Bergmann's rule
Funding
- Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, MICINN [PGC2018-093925-B-C33]
- Generalitat de Catalunya [2017SGR859]
- Aragosaurus (Gobierno de Aragon)
- Agencia de Gestio d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca (AGAUR)
- Departament d'Empresa i Coneixement de la Generalitat de Catalunya [2021 FI_B2 00207]
- Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation through the Maria de Maeztu program for Units of Excellence [CEX2019-000945-M]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
This study reports on fish remains from the Gran Dolina cave in Spain, revealing a premountain river system with permanent, oxygen-rich, relatively cold flowing waters around the Sierra de Atapuerca during the Early-Middle Pleistocene. Taphonomic studies suggest that the European eagle owl was the likely predator responsible for the accumulation of fish bones. Changes in brown trout body size observed through the sequence cannot be attributed to climate change.
Fish bones are common in Pleistocene cave deposits in Europe. In this paper, we report on fish remains from the Gran Dolina cave (Trinchera del Ferrocarril) in the Sierra de Atapuerca in Spain, to increase what is known of the freshwater ecosystems close to the cave. The 19-m-thick section, divided into 11 stratigraphic levels, represents an Early to Middle Pleistocene time span as dated by biostratigraphy, ESR, U-series, and magnetostratigraphy. We focus on the Sondeo South site, excavated from 1993 to 1999, which has yielded 1087 fish bones comprising the following taxa: brown trout (Salmo trutta), the common European eel (Anguilla anguilla) and chub (Squalius sp.). Taphonomic studies suggest that the European eagle owl (Bubo bubo) was the most likely predator responsible for the accumulation. Changes observed in the body size of brown trout through the sequence cannot be attributed to climate change (contravening Bergmann's rule). Our study documents the presence of a premountain river system characterized by permanent, oxygen-rich, relatively cold flowing waters around the Sierra de Atapuerca during Early-Middle Pleistocene times.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available