Late Villafranchian Mammuthus meridionalis (Nesti, 1825) from the Iberian Peninsula: Dentognathic remains from Incarcal-I (Crespià, Girona) and Venta Micena (Orce, Granada)

Abstract

The late Early Pleistocene (Late Villafranchian) paleontological sites of Incarcal-I (Crespià, Catalonia, Spain) and Venta Micena (Orce, Andalusia, Spain), which are approximately 800 km apart, preserve a rich fossil record of proboscideans, corresponding to the species Mammuthus meridionalis. The remains from Incarcal-I have been described as an evolved form of the species. However, their comparison with the mandible of the same species from Venta Micena (with an approximate age of 1.4e1.6 Ma) and other specimens from different sites in Europe and Asia shows that the fossils from Incarcal-I and Venta Micena are very similar in morphology and metric data. Research suggests that the Catalonian specimens correspond to a form of the former species, which according to their morphology probably have a chronology closer to that of the Venta Micena specimens.