Pleistocene herbivores and carnivores from France: An updated overview of the literature, sites and taxonomy

Brugal, Jean‐Philip; Argant, Alain; Boudadi‐Maligne, Myriam; Crégut-Bonnoure, Évelyne; Croitor, Roman; Fernandez, Philippe; Fourvel, Jean‐Baptiste; Fossé, Philippe; Guadelli, Jean‐Luc; Labe, Bruno; Magniez, Pierre; Uzunidis, Antigone

doi:10.1016/j.annpal.2019.102384

Cited by 19 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 102 publications

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“…The deposit of Ceyssaguet is placed above a lava flow dated at ~1.3 Ma [118] and hence it might fall within or be younger than the "suid gap" end, with prevailing opinions pointing to an age of ~1.2 Ma [119]. According to Van der Made et al [24], Ceyssaguet would be the youngest locality with S. strozzii, although the sample is still unpublished.…”

Section: Fossil Localities and The "Suid Gap"mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Occurrence of Suids in the Post-Olduvai to Pre-Jaramillo Pleistocene of Europe and Implications for Late Villafranchian Biochronology and Faunal Dynamics

Iannucci

2024

Quaternary

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It has been proposed that suids were absent from Europe during the post-Olduvai to pre-Jaramillo Early Pleistocene (from less than 1.8 to more than 1.2 Ma) and that their “re-appearance” in the late Early Pleistocene would mark the end of the late Villafranchian and the beginning of the Epivillafranchian. Arguments enumerated in favor of this “suid gap” are the lack of suid remains from extensively sampled fossil localities of this age and the high reproductive potential (r-strategy) of suids, which would translate in a high commonness of their remains in the fossil record. However, here it shown that while suids’ reproductive potential is certainly exceptional within artiodactyls, there is no direct relationship between the reproductive strategy and preservation rate of a taxon in the fossil record. In Early Pleistocene localities of Europe and adjoining areas, where suids are present in a fossil assemblage, they are always rare. In terms of number of occurrences (frequency), suids range from being moderately common (~2.0–1.8 Ma) to moderately rare (~1.1–1.0 Ma). Suid material is also described herein from Peyrolles (Issoire, France; reference locality for MNQ 19), a site dated at 1.47 Ma, providing direct evidence for the presence of suids within the purported “suid gap”. The case of suids underlines an important source of caveat in inferring faunal dynamics of the late Early Pleistocene of western Europe—including the dispersal of hominins—i.e., the unequal geographical distribution of the paleontological sites of post-Olduvai to pre-Jaramillo age. Indeed, Peyrolles is the only large mammal site in western Europe located outside the Iberian and Italian Peninsulas reliably dated around 1.5 Ma. In the post-Olduvai to pre-Jaramillo period, there is a paucity of radiometric estimates (or they have too coarse a resolution) and of paleomagnetic excursions detectable in continental deposits. Basically, for this time span, there is a high dependence on biochronological correlations, although, at the same time, these correlations are less reliable—because these are based on a few sites not covering the entire spectrum of environments present in Europe and the sites are not independently dated with methods that outperform biochronology—than those for other periods.

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Section: Fossil Localities and The "Suid Gap"mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Occurrence of Suids in the Post-Olduvai to Pre-Jaramillo Pleistocene of Europe and Implications for Late Villafranchian Biochronology and Faunal Dynamics

Iannucci

2024

Quaternary

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“…The number of identified specimens (NISP; Grayson, 1984), their taxonomic and taphonomic analyses as well as the minimum number of elements (MNE; Binford, 1981;Klein and Cruz-Uribe, 1984;Stiner, 1994) and age class at death are provided according to available criteria. The estimated age of death was performed taking into consideration the observations of Gipson et al (2000) on North American wolves, Guskov (2014) for Balkan and North American brown bears, Brugal et al (1997) for Pleistocene hyenas, Bull and Payne (1982) for Sus scrofa from Turkey, Mariezkurrena (1983) for Cervus elaphus from Cantabria (Spain) (for red deer and fallow deer), Tomé and Vigne (2003) for Capreolus capreolus from northern France, and Barone (1974Barone ( , 1981 and Grant (1982) for present-day domestic cattle and horse (as a proxy for equids and B. primigenius). The fragmentation index and the survival coefficient of the anatomical elements (Binford, 1981;Lyman, 1994) were calculated to evaluate the skeletal survival rate of different species.…”

Section: Paleontological Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

The faunal assemblage from La Sassa cave (Latium, Italy): Environmental perspective of a Late Pleistocene cave hyena – Brown bear den

Gatta

Fiorillo

Salari

et al. 2022

Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports

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“…They are rich in horse fossil material with well-preserved bones and teeth. In this paper, we have referred to the Latin terminology E. caballus rather than E. ferus following the demonstration of J.-L. Guadelli [23]. Moreover, we referred to several species and subspecies described for the caballoid lineage in each site through the latest works on this subject (see below).…”

Section: Paleoenvironmental Parameters Of the Study Sitesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Middle Pleistocene Variations in the Diet of Equus in the South of France and Its Morphometric Adaptations to Local Environments

Uzunidis

2021

Quaternary

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Equus is a very sensitive genus which has expanded over a large area and lived in Europe despite the climatic instability of the Pleistocene. Its persistence and abundance are helpful in understanding and describing environmental and climatic regional parameters. In this study, we present the result of dental mesowear and microwear analysis and post-cranial skeleton biometry on Equus populations located in two regions in the South of France from ten sites, corresponding to twelve assemblages dated from MIS 12 to MIS 5. The areas refer to two major climatic zones: the oceanic or subcontinental climate for the South West of France, and the Mediterranean for the South East. The first objective of this study is to integrate and compare biometric data, dental wear, and other already-published environmental proxies. The goal is to discuss the validity of horse body shape adaptations on a small geographical scale. The second objective is to describe the impact of environmental features on the horse population through time in the two regions. We observe that the Equus diet was quite diverse, according to microwear analysis which shows adaptations according to seasonal variations. However, they remained mostly grazers over a long period of time. Estimated body mass of Equus in the localities studied here varies from a mean of 468 up to a mean of 570 kg, but these variations failed to be correlated with the diet, the climatic period, or the geographical position of the horse population, probably because of the sample size or the restricted time-span or geographical scale. However, the conformation of the metapodials and the width of the third phalanges may have been linked with environmental and behavioural parameters. The width of the third phalange may be correlated with the recurrence of the snow cover, while the robustness of the metapodial co-occurs with a humid climate. Also, diet may influence the conformation of the bones, since the tall and slender horses seem to be preferentially grazers all year long and seasonally browser horses are tall and robust. Seasonally mixed-feeder horses, all coming from the Mediterranean area, were found to be smaller, perhaps in relation to a less productive environment. The correspondence of the dietary and morphometrical data could suggest high pressure on the horse population, which caused rapid body adaptation. Thus, the combination of these different proxies allows us to suggest more accurate large mammal paleoenvironmental reconstructions.

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Pleistocene herbivores and carnivores from France: An updated overview of the literature, sites and taxonomy

Cited by 19 publications

References 102 publications

The Occurrence of Suids in the Post-Olduvai to Pre-Jaramillo Pleistocene of Europe and Implications for Late Villafranchian Biochronology and Faunal Dynamics

The Occurrence of Suids in the Post-Olduvai to Pre-Jaramillo Pleistocene of Europe and Implications for Late Villafranchian Biochronology and Faunal Dynamics

The faunal assemblage from La Sassa cave (Latium, Italy): Environmental perspective of a Late Pleistocene cave hyena – Brown bear den

Middle Pleistocene Variations in the Diet of Equus in the South of France and Its Morphometric Adaptations to Local Environments

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