Palaeoenvironment of the earliest hominins in western Europe: the Guadix-Baza Basin

Abstract

<p>The Guadix-Baza Basin (Granada Province, Southern Spain) is the richest area in Western Europe for the study of early hominin dispersal and evolution, having yielded the earliest localities with evidence of hominin occupation (a deciduous human molar, lithic industries and cutmarks) together with a rich large and small vertebrate assemblage dated to around 1.4 Ma. A key question is whether environmental changes were involved in the arrival of hominins in this region at this time. To answer this question, possible environmental differences between one older site lacking evidence for hominin occurrence (Venta Micena VM, ~1.6 Ma) and younger sites with undisputable evidence (Barranco León BL and Fuente Nueva-3 FN3, ~1.2-1.5 Ma) were investigated using various approaches, including carbon and oxygen isotopes in tooth enamel, tooth wear analysis, ecometrics and microvertebrates (amphibians, reptiles, mammals) as proxies for palaeoclimate.</p><p>Tooth enamel powders were collected from herbivorous mammal specimens from the three sites. For several specimens, enamel was sampled serially to document intra-annual dietary and/or habitat changes for the studied individuals. A large diversity of herbivorous taxa was sampled, including cervids, bovids, equids, rhinoceros, hippopotamus and mammoths. The analyses were conducted at the University of Tübingen (Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment).</p><p>Carbon isotopic results from the three sites showed that the plants foraged by herbivores were essentially of C3 photosynthetic pathway (trees, shrubs and C3-grass adapted to mild growth season), which is consistent with the results of tooth wear analysis indicating browsing or mixed feeding with browsing preference for most taxa. The consumption of some C4 plants for some herbivores has been detected only in Barranco León, which is consistent with the results of palaeoclimatic investigations based on ecometrics and microvertebrate fauna, indicating a particularly wet and warm climate for this site compared to both others and colder conditions in Venta Micena, the site devoid of hominins. Oxygen isotopic results seem to be essentially related to browsing (high values) versus grazing (lower values) and to different habitats (lowest oxygen isotopic values for semi-aquatic hippos). The differences in isotopic results among taxa are in agreement with those of dietary preferences from mesowear tooth analysis. In addition, in a context of still Mediterranean climate with 4-months aridity during summer, isotopic variations within teeth suggest in some cases significant changes in foraging through a year, which could be related to local seasonal changes or mobility across areas with different vegetation types.</p><p>The first results of this multidisciplinary research project financed by the Leakey Foundation and a General Research Project from the Andalusian Regional Government help us to refine the palaeoenvironmental reconstruction around the time of the earliest arrival of hominins in Southern Spain. In combination with the climatic data provided by ecometrics and microvertebrate investigations, it allows us to develop a more detailed framework for the interpretation of the carbon and oxygen isotopic data from tooth enamel in a Mediterranean climate context, which corresponds to the type of climatic conditions where the earliest hominins occur in Europe in the Early Pleistocene.</p>

The Significance of Subtlety: Contrasting Lithic Raw Materials Procurement and Use Patterns at the Oldowan Sites of Barranco León and Fuente Nueva 3 (Orce, Andalusia, Spain)

“…Main results show that climate and vegetation in VM were roughly similar to a Mediterranean forested steppe, while evergreen Mediterranean forests and woodlands or shrub lands dominated during the hominin occupations of BL and FN3. Similarly, carbon and oxygen stable isotopes analyses carried out using tooth enamel from large herbivore dental remains excavated from VM, BL and FN3 (Bocherens et al, 2020), suggests more significant seasonal variations in aridity and vegetation at VM, confirming a harsher climate setting there in comparison with the BL and FN3 hominin sites. All of these multidisciplinary analyses contribute to changing the picture of Oldowan hominin ecological flexibility in southwestern Europe 1.4 to 1.2 Ma, while also highlighting important differences between the Oldowan sites; with BL being globally more humid with more diverse vegetation than FN3.…”

Glacial/interglacial climate variability in southern Spain during the late Early Pleistocene and climate backdrop for early Homo in Europe

“…(documented in level D1 of BL) and the anguid Ophisaurus sp. (documented in levels D1, D2 and E of BL) (Sánchez-Bandera et al, 2020). Bufotes viridis s.l.…”

“…Paleoclimatic and paleoenvironmental reconstructions of BL and FN3 have been undertaken using a variety of proxies and techniques: ecometric and mesowear analyses based on the large-mammal assemblages (Saarinen et al, 2021a); analysis of herpetofaunal assemblages (Blain, 2005(Blain, , 2009Bailon, 2010;Blain and Bailon, 2010;Blain et al, 2011Blain et al, , 2016aSánchez-Bandera et al, 2020); analysis of small-mammal assemblages (Agustí et al, 2010a(Agustí et al, , b, 2015a(Agustí et al, , 2019b; malacofaunal analysis (applied at BL, Albesa and Robles, 2020); isotopic analysis of ostracod shells (Anadón and Gabàs, 2009), of biogenic lacustrine carbonates (Anadón et al, 2015) and of the tooth enamel of large herbivores (Bocherens et al, 2020); pollen analysis (Jiménez Moreno, 2003;Ochando et al, 2022); and taphonomic studies (Yravedra et al, 2021(Yravedra et al, , 2022. Nevertheless, with the exception of the microvertebrate analyses (Agustí et al, 2015a(Agustí et al, , 2019bSánchez-Bandera et al, 2020) and the isotopic analyses of ostracod shells (Anadón and Gabàs, 2009) and biogenic lacustrine carbonates (Anadón et al, 2015), these proxies have been applied to the sites at a broad level, i.e. without taking into account the different levels of their depositional sequences.…”

“…The amphibian and squamate reptile fossil remains presented in this study are from levels D1, D2 and E of BL and level 5 of FN3. They have already been interpreted from a paleoenvironmental perspective by means of the habitat weighting method (Sánchez-Bandera et al, 2020). The taxonomic list recorded at BL is composed overall of 13 species: six anurans (Discoglossus sp., Pelobates cultripes, Epidalea calamita, Bufotes viridis s.l., Hyla sp.…”

“…Coronella sp.) (Sánchez-Bandera et al, 2020; Supplementary Table S1). The species diversity and richness of these samples have been analyzed and compared, revealing significant differences between the BL and FN3-5 assemblages, the latter being less rich in terms of biodiversity (Martínez-Monzón et al, 2022).…”