The first arrivals of hominin populations into Eurasia during the Early Pleistocene are currently considered to have occurred as short and poorly dated biological dispersions. Questions as to the tempo and mode of these early prehistoric settlements have given rise to debates concerning the taxonomic significance of the lithic assemblages, as trace fossils, and the geographical distribution of the technological traditions found in the Lower Palaeolithic record. Here, we report on the Barranc de la Boella site which has yielded a lithic assemblage dating to ∼1 million years ago that includes large cutting tools (LCT). We argue that distinct technological traditions coexisted in the Iberian archaeological repertoires of the late Early Pleistocene age in a similar way to the earliest sub-Saharan African artefact assemblages. These differences between stone tool assemblages may be attributed to the different chronologies of hominin dispersal events. The archaeological record of Barranc de la Boella completes the geographical distribution of LCT assemblages across southern Eurasia during the EMPT (Early-Middle Pleistocene Transition, circa 942 to 641 kyr). Up to now, chronology of the earliest European LCT assemblages is based on the abundant Palaeolithic record found in terrace river sequences which have been dated to the end of the EMPT and later. However, the findings at Barranc de la Boella suggest that early LCT lithic assemblages appeared in the SW of Europe during earlier hominin dispersal episodes before the definitive colonization of temperate Eurasia took place.

No abstract

The Sorbas Basin is the land reference of the Messinian Salinity Crisis (MSC) that affected the Mediterranean Sea in the latest Miocene. Its stratigraphy has been re-visited using calcareous nannofossils and planktonic foraminifers, which provide a reliable biostratigraphic frame and lead to particularly specify the relationships between the Sorbas and Zorreras members with Yesares evaporites. The evaporites overlie a shallowing upward sequence ending with the deposition of the Reef Unit and Terminal Carbonate Complex (TCC) on the periphery of the basin. The reefal carbonates of the TCC are overlain by clastic deposits that are foreset beds of post-MSC Gilbert-type fan deltas developed on the northern edge of the basin. These sedimentary structures are separated from reefal carbonates and the Reef Unit by the Messinian Erosional Surface (MES). The various facies of the Sorbas Member have been correlated with the bottomset beds of the Gilbert-type fan deltas despite some differences in palaeobathymetry. In the southeastern periphery of the basin, the MES separates the Sorbas Member from the Yesares gypsums. In the central part of the basin, a hiatus characterizes the contact between these members. The Zorreras Member postdates the MSC and entirely belongs to Zanclean. Its white "Lago Mare" layers are lagoonal deposits, the fauna of which is confirmed to result from Mediterranean-Paratethys high sea-level exchange after the post-MSC marine reflooding of the Mediterranean Basin. This study allows to reassert the two-step scenario of the MSC (Clauzon et al., 1996) with the following events:-at 5.971-5.600 Ma, minor sea-level fall resulting in the desiccation of this peripheral basin with secondary fluctuations;-at 5.600-5.460 Ma, significant subaerial erosion (or lack of sedimentation) caused by the almost complete desiccation of the Mediterranean Sea;

No abstract

The relationship between duration in the fossil record and larval ecology, based on the protoconch morphology, has been analysed for 40 species of Nassarius Duméril, 1806. The lifespan of species with planktotrophic larval development is significantly longer than for those with nonplanktotrophic development. Many species, representing both forms of larval ecology, cluster around certain values of longevity. This macroevolutionary tendency does not correspond to a phylogenetic pattern, nor does it depend on the ecology of the adult forms. The results are explained by means of a hypothesis on dispersion capacity of the larvae, taking into account the particular geological history of the Mediterranean and eastern Atlantic regions during the Neogene. Additional hypotheses, relating to, e.g., ecological tolerance or trophism, are rejected as being unnecessary in this case. □Longevity, larval ecology, gastropods, Nassariidae, Neogene, Mediterranean, Atlantic.