Journal
PALAEOGEOGRAPHY PALAEOCLIMATOLOGY PALAEOECOLOGY
Volume 472, Issue -, Pages 67-82Publisher
ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV
DOI: 10.1016/j.palaeo.2017.01.016
Keywords
Panthera pardus; Capra pyrenaica; Taphonomy; Pleistocene; Iberian Peninsula
Funding
- project: Mas alla de la historia. Origen y consolidacion del poblamiento paleolitico valenciano [PROMETEOII/2013/016]
- project: Paleolitico medio y superior en la vertiente mediterranea iberica: Valencia y Murcia [HAR2014-52671-P]
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Bone accumulations created by carnivores during the Pleistocene have been largely associated with the action of cave hyenas (Crocuta spelaea Golfiiss, 1823), identified all over Europe. Yet in recent years it has been shown that leopards (Panthera pardus Linnaeus, 1758) played a role in the creation of sites in the Iberian Peninsula. In this study we present the taphonomic study of the bone accumulation of the Pre-Solutrean level at the Race) del Duc Cave (south of the province of Valencia), where the dominant species (Capra pyrenaica Schinz, 1838) has been accumulated by leopards. Together with new data and other references taken from the bibliography, we have summarised the main taphonomic characteristics of the sites accumulated by leopards. The predator prey relationship has also been analysed and it has shown that during the Pleistocene, leopards in the Iberian Peninsula were specialised in catching goats, showing similar behaviour to that of snow leopards. Said specialisation may have been due to the occupation of caves in steep areas where rupicolous fauna predominated. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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