On the fallacy of using orthogenetic models of rectilinear change in arvicolid teeth for estimating the age of the first human settlements in Western Europe

Abstract

recently published age estimates for two Late Villafranchian sites of Orce (Guadix-Baza basin, SE Spain), BL-D and FN-3, which provide some of the earliest evidence of human presence in Western Europe. The estimates were obtained from mean Lm1 values of the water vole Mimomys savini preserved in the sites and a couple of rectilinear equations derived in the Atapuerca TD section for site age on tooth length. However, this chronometric tool has problems that discourage its use in biostratigraphy, including: (1) the assumption of an orthogenetic trend of Lm1 increase during the evolution of the M. savini/Arvicola lineage; (2) the use of a chronology for the TD section not supported by original ESR data; (3) the discrepancies between the mean Lm1 values published for the TD levels and (4) the chronological ranges predicted when the standard deviations are used, which are exceedingly large as to be of value for biostratigraphic purposes. As a result, the pseudo numerical ages estimated for the Orce sites only add noise to the timing of the first human dispersal in Europe, which is based on a combination of results from well-established techniques such as palaeomagnetism, biostratigraphy and ESR.

A new species of dog from the Early Pleistocene site of Venta Micena (Orce, Baza Basin, Spain)

“…In fact, in the site of Barranco León, dated to 1.4 Ma, a deciduous tooth was unearthed, which is at the moment the earliest fossil hominin of the European continent (Toro-Moyano et al 2013). Moreover, this site and Fuente Nueva-3, which is close in age to BL (see review in Palmqvist et al 2016), preserve huge assemblages of Oldowan tools and evidence of anthropic action on large mammal bones, including megafauna (Espigares et al 2013(Espigares et al , 2019.…”

Insights on the Early Pleistocene Hominin Population of the Guadix-Baza Depression (SE Spain) and a Review on the Ecology of the First Peopling of Europe

“…An age of 1.50 ± 0.31 Ma was derived for FN3 based on cosmogenic nuclides (Álvarez et al, 2015). Other age estimates were derived from a biometric approach that considered an orthogenetic, rectilinear pattern of size increase in the lower molar teeth of the arvicolid Mimomys savini (Lozano-Fernández et al, 2013, 2014, but this "vole-clock" was questioned (Martin, 2014;Palmqvist et al, 2014Palmqvist et al, , 2016. The absence of suids from BL and FN3 provides also a useful biochronological inference (Martínez-Navarro et al, 2015): suids are absent from Europe between 1.8 and 1.2 Ma, until the arrival of an evolved form of Sus strozzi during the Epivillafranchian (Cherin et al, 2018(Cherin et al, , 2020.…”

Déjà vu: on the use of meat resources by sabretooth cats, hominins, and hyaenas in the Early Pleistocene site of Fuente Nueva 3 (Guadix-Baza Depression, SE Spain)

“…This allowed the establishment of a rich and diverse community of large mammals, whose remains are preserved in many archaeological and palaeontological localities across the entire sedimentary depression, especially in its north-eastern sector (Palmqvist et al 1996(Palmqvist et al , 2011Arribas and Palmqvist 1998;Palmqvist and Arribas 2001;Espigares et al 2013Espigares et al , 2019Toro-Moyano et al 2013;Rodríguez-Gómez et al 2016a, 2017aRos-Montoya et al 2017). The Orce area, a satellite basin in the NE sector of the Guadix-Baza Depression with an extent of ~170 km 2 , preserves a unique fossil record of the Early Pleistocene fauna, including two Late Villafranchian sites that mark the oldest presence of hominins in Western Europe, Barranco León (BL) and FN3 (Martínez-Navarro et al 1997Espigares et al 2013Espigares et al , 2019Toro-Moyano et al 2013;Palmqvist et al 2016).…”

“…Other age estimates for these sites (1.26 ± 0.13 Ma for BL and 1.20 ± 0.12 Ma for FN3) were obtained with a biometric approach based on the size of the lower molar tooth of the arvicolid Mimomys savini (Lozano-Fernández et al 2013. However, this "vole-clock" assumes a rectilinear pattern of change through time, which discourages its use in biostratigraphy (Martin 2014;Palmqvist et al 2014Palmqvist et al , 2016. Moreover, the absence of suids from the fossil assemblages of BL and FN3 provides a useful biochronological marker (Martínez-Navarro et al 2015): suids are not present in Europe in the interval between 1.8 and 1.2 Ma until the arrival of a derived form of Sus strozzi during the Epivillafranchian (Cherin et al 2018(Cherin et al , 2020.…”

“…This species is first recorded in association with hominin remains at level TE9 of Sima del Elefante in the Atapuerca karstic complex, which is dated to 1.22 ± 0.16 Ma on the basis of cosmogenic nuclides (Carbonell et al 2008), and later in other sites of Jaramillo age like Untermassfeld in Germany, Vallonnet in France, or Vallparadís in Spain (Moullé et al 2006;Madurell-Malapeira et al 2010Cherin et al 2018Cherin et al , 2020. According to these lines of evidence, the most parsimonious age estimate for BL and FN3 is ~1.4 Ma (Palmqvist et al 2016).…”