Early Pleistocene faunal assemblages and human records in southern Europe

Abstract

Early humans dispersed from Africa into the Eurasian continent during the Olduvai paleomagnetic subchron (ca. 1.8 Ma), in parallel with other few African species. The most relevant one is the sabertooth tiger Megantereon whitei, which was an ambush super specialized hunter able to eat only the soft parts of the carcass preys, thus leaving almost unexploited carrions that were representing an important food source for the guild of scavengers, especially the giant hyaena Pachycrocuta brevirostris and Homo. At the same time, the renewal of Eurasian faunal assemblage is also characterized by the turnover of several taxa of carnivores and herbivores in Europe. Among ungulates one of the most significant taxa are Suidae. The species Sus strozzii occurs in European assemblages until the top of the subchron Olduvai (1.75 Ma), when the species disappears. During the following half million years (until the base of the subchron Jaramillo, around 1.2-1.1 Ma), pigs are not recorded in Europe, until they return with a new form of the same species Sus strozzii. Humans predate the advanced form of the Sus strozzii re-colonization in Europe, at Fuente Nueva 3 and Barranco León in Orce (1.4 Ma). Around 1.2-1.1 Ma, a new important faunal turnover is detected, related with the increasing climate change, and announcing the so called “Mid-Pleistocene Revolution”. Most of the late Early Pleistocene human records around the Mediterranean basin are associated with such new mammal assemblage, well represented at Vallonnet, Vallparadís, La Boella, or Sima del Elefante in Atapuerca.