The Koskobilo (Olazti, Navarre, Northern Iberian Peninsula) paleontological collection: New insights for the Middle and Late Pleistocene in Western Pyrenees

Abstract

The destroyed site(s) of Koskobilo (Olazti, Navarre, Northern Iberian Peninsula) have yielded unique archaeopaleontological evidence in the Western Pyrenees region. The quarry uncovered a karstic site with faunal remains in 1940, and fossils were recovered both in situ and from the quarry dump. Ten years later, while the quarry was still working, a new visit to the dump yielded a large lithic assemblage and additional fossil remains with a different taphonomic pattern, which has been interpreted as the remains coming from a different site or zone within the same karst system. Here we re-study the paleontological evidence and provide new dating on a speleothem covering a Stephanorhinus hemitoechus tooth, which has yielded a minimum date of c. 220 ka for part of the assemblage. In total, the fossil assemblage comprises 38 mammal and six avian taxa and three fish remains. The faunal evidence indicates that in 1940 a mix of taxa from both the Middle and Upper Pleistocene were recovered, and it is difficult to assign most of them to a concrete period. However, based on biochronological criteria some of the identified taxa (e.g., Ursus thibetanus, Ursus cf. deningeri, Cuon cf. priscus, Macaca sylvanus, cf. Megaceroides) could be roughly contemporaneous with the dated rhino tooth, which would provide a new window to the Middle Pleistocene of the region, with deposits from MIS 7d and/or older. Despite the

The first record of Cuon alpinus (Pallas, 1811) from Poland and the possible impact of other large canids on the evolution of the species

“…This confirms the scheme proposed by Adam (1959Adam ( , 1961 with the succession of three forms: C. a. priscus → fossilis → europaeus. Regarding this concept, we agree with Adam (1959) and Brugal and Boudadi-Maligne (2011) that particular chronosubspecies could represent Thenius (1954), Adam (1959), Bonifay (1971), Schütt (1973), Kurtén and Poulianos (1977), Crégut (1979), Cordy (1983, Delpech (1989), Malez and Turk (1990), Argant (1991), Ehrlinger and Zenger (1999), Sotnikova (2001), García (2003), Argant (2010), Boudadi-Maligne (2011), Pérez-Ripoll et al (2010), Brugal and Boudadi-Maligne (2011, Baryshnikov (2012), Petrucci et al (2012), Gimranov et al (2015) and Gómez-Olivencia et al (2020). [Color figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com] different periods of dispersal of the genus into Europe.…”

“…(2015), Argant and Argant (2018), and Gómez‐Olivencia et al . (2020). The analysed material of dhole from Polish sites was compared with that of L. lycaonoides , C. alpinus and Canis lupus .…”

“…The morphometric analysis was based on our new measurements as well as those taken from the literature: Del Campana (1913), Mottl (1951), Thenius (1954), Adam (1959), Bonifay (1971), Altuna (1972), Schütt (1973), Kurtén and Poulianos (1977), Crégut (1979), Turner (1981, Bishop (1982), Cordy (1983), Sotnikova (1988Sotnikova ( , 2001, Delpech (1989), Dufour (1989), Jánossy (1990), Malez and Turk (1990), Argant (1991Argant ( , 2010, Rook (1994), Baryshnikov (1995Baryshnikov ( , 2012Baryshnikov ( , 2015, Ehrlinger and Zenger (1999), Kleczko (1999), Stiner et al (2001), García (2003), Moullé and Echassoux (2005) Petrucci et al (2012Petrucci et al ( , 2013, Bertè and Pandolfi (2014), Sardella et al (2014), Gimranov et al (2015), Vislobokova and Agadjanian (2015), Wang et al (2015), Argant (2018), andGómez-Olivencia et al (2020). The analysed material of dhole from Polish sites was compared with that of L. lycaonoides, C. alpinus and Canis lupus.…”

Middle Pleistocene fauna and palaeoenvironment in the south of Eastern Europe: A case study of the Medzhybizh 1 locality (MIS 11, Ukraine)

“…The material is insufficient to discriminate from the many other species of this genus, but Sus scrofa is the only Middle Pleistocene species of Suidae in Europe (Van der Made et al, 2017) and in the north of Eurasia. There are size changes in this species (Gómez Olivencia et al, 2020), but the fossils from Medzhybizh 1 are insufficient to estimate the size.…”

Looking for the earliest evidence of Ursus arctos LINNAEUS, 1758 in the Iberian Peninsula: the Middle Pleistocene site of Postes cave

“…The Middle Pleistocene sites containing brown bears are mainly located in the southern half of the Iberian Peninsula with a potential presence in Koskobilo (Gómez‐Olivencia et al . 2020). On the other hand, the palaeobiogeographical distribution of the cave bears during the Middle and Late Pleistocene is restricted to the northern part of the Iberian Peninsula (Torres 2014).…”