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Aurochs roamed along the SW coast of Andalusia (Spain) during Late Pleistocene

Authors :
Universidad de Sevilla. Departamento de Cristalografía, Mineralogía y Química Agrícola
Foundation for Science and Technology (FST)
Neto de Carvalho, Carlos
Muñiz Guinea, Fernando
Cáceres, Luis Miguel
Belaústegui, Zain
Rodríguez Vidal, Joaquín
Belo, João
Finlayson, Clive
Universidad de Sevilla. Departamento de Cristalografía, Mineralogía y Química Agrícola
Foundation for Science and Technology (FST)
Neto de Carvalho, Carlos
Muñiz Guinea, Fernando
Cáceres, Luis Miguel
Belaústegui, Zain
Rodríguez Vidal, Joaquín
Belo, João
Finlayson, Clive
Publication Year :
2022

Abstract

In the Iberian Peninsula the fossil record of artiodactyls spans over 53 million years. During the Pleistocene, wild cattle species such as Bison and especially Bos became common. In Late Pleistocene, the aurochs (Bos primigenius) was widespread and the only bovine living along the large river valleys of southern Iberia. Although commonly found in fossil sites and especially in cave bone assemblages, the trace fossil record of aurochs was known worldwide only from the Holocene. Large bovine and roe deer/caprine tracks were found in at least fve horizons of the early Late Pleistocene (MIS 5) beach and eolian deposits of Cape Trafalgar (Cadiz Province, South of Spain). The large bovine tracks are formally described as Bovinichnus uripeda igen. et isp. nov. and compared with the record of aurochs tracks, large red deer tracks and steppe bison biogeographical distribution in Iberia. Aurochs were the most likely producers of the newly described Trafalgar Trampled Surface (TTS) and some of the large artiodactyl tracks in the Matalascañas Trampled Surface, representing the oldest aurochs track record known. This new evidence, together with comparisons with the record of possible aurochs tracks in the Mid-Late Pleistocene coastal deposits from the Asperillo clif section in Matalascañas (Huelva Province, SW Spain) and bone assemblages known in Gibraltar, point to a recurrent use of the coastal habitat by these large artiodactyls in SW Iberia.

Details

Database :
OAIster
Notes :
English
Publication Type :
Electronic Resource
Accession number :
edsoai.on1410781079
Document Type :
Electronic Resource