Long-term climate record inferred from early-middle Pleistocene amphibian and squamate reptile assemblages at the Gran Dolina Cave, Atapuerca, Spain

Blain, Hugues‐Alexandre; Bailón, Salvador; Cuenca‐Bescós, Gloria; Arsuaga, Juan Luís; Castro, José Marı́a Bermúdez de; Carbonell, Eudald

doi:10.1016/j.jhevol.2008.08.020

Cited by 175 publications

(85 citation statements)

References 22 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…As a result, taxonomic composition of the assemblage allows us to evaluate the climatic conditions. In order to assess palaeoclimatic data in Canyars, we evaluated the current distribution of all the taxa found there, permitting us to calculate the potential palaeoclimatic conditions at the site (mutual climatic range method, MCR, in accordance with Blain et al, 2009;López-García et al, 2010). The method consists of ascertaining the current distribution area of the faunal association under study.…”

Section: Palaeoclimatic Reconstructionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Heinrich event 4 characterized by terrestrial proxies in southwestern Europe

et al. 2013

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. Heinrich event 4 (H4) is well documented in the North Atlantic Ocean as a cooling event that occurred between 39 and 40 Ka. Deep-sea cores around the Iberian Peninsula coastline have been analysed to characterize the H4 event, but there are no data on the terrestrial response to this event. Here we present for the first time an analysis of terrestrial proxies for characterizing the H4 event, using the small-vertebrate assemblage (comprising small mammals, squamates and amphibians) from Terrassa Riera dels Canyars, an archaeo-palaeontological deposit located on the seaboard of the northeastern Iberian Peninsula. This assemblage shows that the H4 event is characterized in northeastern Iberia by harsher and drier terrestrial conditions than today. Our results were compared with other proxies such as pollen, charcoal, phytolith, avifauna and large-mammal data available for this site, as well as with the general H4 event fluctuations and with other sites where H4 and the previous and subsequent Heinrich events (H5 and H3) have been detected in the Mediterranean and Atlantic regions of the Iberian Peninsula. We conclude that the terrestrial proxies follow the same patterns as the climatic and environmental conditions detected by the deep-sea cores at the Iberian margins.

show abstract

Section: Palaeoclimatic Reconstructionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Heinrich event 4 characterized by terrestrial proxies in southwestern Europe

et al. 2013

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The use of the Mutual Climatic Range method on reptiles and amphibians at Gran Dolina, Atapuerca (Blain et al, 2009) reconstructs a temperature range of 10-13 C and precipitation range of 800-1000 mm/year for the hominin levels. When compared with the down-scaled 9 ka MOD values of 13.4 C and 680 mm/year (Fig.…”

Section: Quantification and Simulation Of Climate In The Early Pleistmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vegetation context and climatic limits of the Early Pleistocene hominin dispersal in Europe

Leroy

Arpe

Mikolajewicz

2011

Quaternary Science Reviews

106

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

a b s t r a c tThe vegetation and the climatic context in which the first hominins entered and dispersed in Europe during the Early Pleistocene are reconstructed, using literature review and a new climatic simulation. Both in situ fauna and in situ pollen at the twelve early hominin sites under consideration indicate the occurrence of open landscapes: grasslands or forested steppes. The presence of ancient hominins (Homo of the erectus group) in Europe is only possible at the transition from glacial to interglacial periods, the full glacial being too cold for them and the transition interglacial to glacial too forested. Glacial-interglacial cycles forced by obliquity showed paralleled vegetation successions, which repeated c. 42 times during the course of the Early Pleistocene (2.58-0.78 Ma), providing 42 narrow windows of opportunity for hominins to disperse into Europe.The climatic conditions of this Early Pleistocene vegetation at glacial-interglacial transitions are compared with a climatic simulation for 9 ka ago without ice sheet, as this time period is so far the best analogue available. The climate at the beginning of the present interglacial displayed a stronger seasonality than now. Forest cover would not have been hampered though, clearly indicating that other factors linked to refugial location and soils leave this period relatively free of forests. Similar situations with an offset between climate and vegetation at the beginning of interglacials repeated themselves throughout the Quaternary and benefitted the early hominins when colonising Europe.The duration of this open phase of vegetation at the glacial-interglacial transition was long enough to allow colonisation from the Levant to the Atlantic.The twelve sites fall within rather narrow ranges of summer precipitation and temperature of the coldest month, suggesting the hominins had only a very low tolerance to climate variability.

show abstract

“…The wash ing-sieving technique allowed recovery an important collection of small vertebrates , 1999, 2005Blain et al, 2008Blain et al, , 2009Rofes and Cuenca-Bescos, 2009a, b). The species richness and the abundance of small mammals, reptiles and amphibians were reviewed for the entire stratigraphic column of the locality of Gran Dolina, at the Gran Dolina Sondeo South.…”

Section: Sp Edes Countmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The amphibian and reptile fragments were identified following the general criteria given by B6hme (1977), Bailon (1999), Sanchiz (1985, 1991), Holman (1998) and Gleed-Owen (2000) for Anura, and Bailon (1991), Szyndlar (1984) and Blain (2005) for Squamata. The taxonomy has been improved by the recent works of identification and analysis of amphibians and reptiles (Blain et al, 200S, 2009) For counting the minimum number of individuals, we followed the criteria of Cuenca- Bescos et al (2005) and Blain et al (2008Blain et al ( ,2009). …”

Section: Ta Xonomy and Systematic Palaeontologymentioning

confidence: 99%