Paleodemographic analysis of a fossil porcupine (Hystrix refossa Gervais, 1852) population from the Upper Pleistocene site of Geula Cave (Mount Carmel, Israel)

Middle and Late Pleistocene mammal fossils of Arabia and surrounding regions: Implications for biogeography and hominin dispersals

“…In African Saharo-Arabia, the geographic distribution of alcelaphines during the Late Pleistocene is similar to that of the Middle Pleistocene. In the Levant, Alcelaphus is far more abundant in the Late Pleistocene than the Middle Pleistocene, with A. buselaphus remains recorded at Hayonim Cave (Stiner, 2005), Geula Cave B (Monchot et al, 2012), El Wad and Skhul (Marín-Arroyo, 2013). Alcelaphus was probably also present in eastern Saraho-Arabia as Thomas et al (1998) noted that isolated lower and upper molars from Khall Amayshan-1 likely represent an alcelaphine.…”

“…Panthera pardus was found at Sodmein Cave in the Egyptian Sahara (Moeyersons et al, 2002), P. leo at Lukenya Hill in Kenya (Marean and Gifford-Gonzalez, 1991;Marean, 1992) and both at El Harhoura 2 Cave in Morocco (Michel et al, 2009), suggesting a widespread distribution. The Eurasian large felid record is perhaps more abundant during the Late Pleistocene and both P. pardus and P. leo are known from numerous sites (Hooijer, 1961;Gilead, 1991;Griggo, 2004;Stiner, 2005;Otte et al, 2007;Patnaik et al, 2008;Trinkaus et al, 2008;Monchot et al, 2012). Both large (P. pardus and P. leo) and small felids (F. silvestris) were reported from Wezmeh Cave, Iran (Trinkaus et al, 2008).…”

“…In eastern Saharo-Arabia, Vulpes is known from Kharaneh IV, Jordan (Martin et al, 2010), and Wezmeh Cave, Iran (Trinkaus et al, 2008). Both Canis lupus and C. aureus are known from the Palearctic region of the Levant (Hooijer, 1961;Phillips, 1988;Stiner, 2005;Monchot et al, 2012) and the latter from northern Saharo-Arabia (Michel et al, 2009).…”

“…Fossil remains of mustelids were far more common during the Late Pleistocene than in the preceding Middle Pleistocene. Melivora capensis is known widely from Africa (Marean and Gifford-Gonzalez, 1991;Marean et al, 1992;Michel et al, 2009) and Guela B Cave, Israel (Monchot et al, 2012). Meles meles and Martes foina are known from numerous sites in the Levant (Hooijer, 1961;Stiner, 2005;Monchot et al, 2012;Marín-Arroyo, 2013) and the latter from Yafteh Cave in India (Otte et al, 2007).…”

Life tables and Leslie matrices for mammalian cohorts in different paleobiological contexts during the Pleistocene

“…In paleobiological contexts, Leslie matrices have only been used or even mentioned until recently in a very few works ( [43], [90], [104][105][106][107][108]). However, they have become a standard in population ecology ( [103], [109]) due to their long-established use since the works of Bernardelli [110], Lewis [111] and the most accomplished studies of agestructured model of population growth by Leslie [112,113].…”