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The pieces of wood extracted by the Marquis of Cerralbo at the Acheulian site of Torralba constitute one of the few materials from this famous locality that have not been subjected to detailed study by researchers. Over a century after their extraction, the present paper provides the first anatomical results of these 34 woody remains. The results highlight the presence of the taxon Pinus sylvestris – nigra group ( Pinus cf. sylvestris) at the site, thus constituting one of the few and oldest references attributable to the aforementioned taxon for the Iberian Peninsula. The anatomical diagnosis confirms the existence of Middle Pleistocene landscapes with pine woods at elevations at least 200 m lower than at present in the site area. From a taphonomic point of view, the wood samples exhibit the typical morphologies of woody macroremains preserved in continental sedimentary environments, and there was no evidence at all that they had previously been manipulated by man. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper reports on analysis of plant macrofossils in aeolian deposits exposed in El Asperillo cliff in the Province of Huelva. A significant find of a large number of macrofossils of Pinus (Pinus pinaster Ait. and Pinus nigra Arnold) makes a major contribution to our understanding of the role of Pine in the Upper Pleistocene landscapes of Iberia. P. pinaster Ait. and P. nigra Arnold, are meso-microthermic species and inhabited valleys excavated in aeolian sediments mainly deposited during OIS 4 and OIS 3 (based on OSL and radiocarbon ages). Their presence in these valleys during the last part of OIS4 and OIS 3 reflects a significant fall in temperature during certain periods of these isotopic stages and helps us better understand the response of coastal dynamics to climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Integration of a diverse set of data from pollen, wood, macrofossils and dendrochronological studies from the Sierra de Ayllón, a mountainous region in central Spain, enables one of the most complete palaeoecological vegetation reconstructions for almost the whole Holocene on the Iberian Peninsula. Previously, the absence of pollen data for the early Holocene in the eastern part of the Sistema Central mountains had been a gap in the information needed for correctly reconstructing palaeoenvironmental change there. Our pollen study on the Valdojos site finally allows this issue to be resolved. This analysis highlights the crucial role played by pine woodlands throughout the first half of the Holocene in this region. The importance of the pine woods in the region enables us to show the clear difference in vegetation between the western and eastern parts of the Sistema Central mountains for the early to mid Holocene. Moreover, the Fagus pollen found at Valdojos, dating to ca. 7,000–6,600 cal years bp, is the oldest beech record for the central and eastern part of this chain of mountains during the Holocene. This supports the hypothesis of the existence of beech refuges in the Sistema Central for this time span. Furthermore, we used the tree-ring series from the Pinus cf. sylvestris subfossil wood from the Sandria site to extend the previous data from the Sierra de Ayllón to almost the entire Holocene. This tree-ring record is the most complete data set from the Iberian Peninsula and southern Europe and it also provides data on some aspects of the palaeoenvironment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]