Biostratigraphy and sedimentary evolution of Late Miocene and Pliocene continental deposits of the Granada Basin (southern Spain)

Abstract

The Late Miocene and Pliocene continental sediments in the Granada Basin (southern Spain) have yielded large amounts of fossil small mammals in 37 localities from 11 sections. The aim of this paper is to integrate faunistic, stratigraphic, and sedimentary criteria to unravel the geological history of the continental infilling of the basin. The palaeontological study has led to a detailed biozonation on the basis of rodents, which helps to correlate in detail the different sedimentary units found in the basin, and to follow the changes of the different sedimentary systems and their palaeogeographical evolution through time. Combination of the proposed biostratigraphy and the reinterpretation of the magnetostratigraphic analyses of the Barranco del Purcal section allows us to assign an absolute age slightly older than 5.23 Ma to the Turolian–Ruscinian boundary (MN13‐MN14).

Pleistocene rodents from the Torrent de Vallparadís section (Terrassa, northeastern Spain) and biochronological implications

“…By contrast, Apocricetus barrierei (Mein and Michaux, 1970), an indicator of early Ruscinian (Zanclean) age (Freudenthal et al 1998;Sesé 2006a;García-Alix et al 2008a) is present at ABS-3A, PUR-4, CLC-3B AF-1'07, and LB-2B, yet absent at AF-1'06, which has yielded over a hundred specimens. The localities of PUR-4 and CLC-3B are within the Apocricetus barrierei Assemblage Zone (earliest Ruscinian-earliest Zanclean) of the Granada Basin (García-Alix et al 2008c).…”

Updating the Europe–Africa small mammal exchange during the late Messinian

“…Remains of Eliomys truci have been found at the site of Aïn Guettara (Brandy & Jaeger, ). This species has been identified from European levels ranging in age from the late Tortonian to the late Pliocene, and it is a common taxon in southern Iberia during the Messinian and Pliocene (García‐Alix et al ., ; Minwer‐Barakat et al ., ). The morphology and size of the specimens from Aïn Guettara agree with the European populations.…”

“…The geographical position of the Iberian Peninsula, at present 14 km from Africa and separated by the Gibraltar Strait, had crucial biogeographical importance during the Cenozoic. The Miocene and early Pliocene mammal associations in the southern Iberian basins frequently differ from those of other European areas, and they often register the first and/or last records of some taxa (Agustí et al ., ; García‐Alix et al ., , ,b; Minwer‐Barakat et al ., ; Martín Suárez et al ., ). Some African immigrant species can be recognized in southern Iberian Neogene basins as a result of faunal exchanges across the Mediterranean region.…”

First Early Pliocene micromammal faunas from Venta del Moro (Cabriel Basin, Spain): new data on the Messinian dispersal of Debruijnimys

“…Paraethomys aff. abaigari is found together with the smaller P. meini in some localities of the MN14, like PUR-13, CLC-5A, Celadas-14, Celadas-5, Celadas-5A, La Gloria 4 and Celadas 9 (García-Alix et al, 2008c). In older localities, closer to the MN13-MN14 boundary like PUR-4, P. meini shows a wide size range, which may indicate that the lineage of P. abaigari is already present in those assemblages, and in Peralejos E two specimens are close to P. aff.…”