RT Journal Article
T1 Déjà vu: on the use of meat resources by sabretooth cats, hominins, and hyaenas in the Early Pleistocene site of Fuente Nueva 3 (Guadix‑Baza Depression, SE Spain)
A1 Palmqvist-Barrena, Carlos Paul
A1 Rodríguez-Gómez, Guillermo
A1 Martínez-Navarro, Bienvenido
A1 Espigares-Ortiz, María Patrocinio
A1 Figueirido-Castillo, Francisco Borja
A1 Ros-Montoya, Sergio
A1 Guerra-Merchán, Antonio
A1 Granados, Alejandro
A1 García-Aguilar, José Manuel
A1 Pérez-Claros, Juan Antonio
K1 Tafonomía
K1 Evolución humana
K1 Sociedades primitivas
AB The late Early Pleistocene archaeological site of Fuente Nueva 3 (Orce, Guadix-Baza Depression, SE Spain), dated to ~1.4Ma, provides evidence on the subsistence strategies of the first hominin population that dispersed in Western Europe. Thesite preserves Oldowan tool assemblages associated with abundant remains of large mammals. A small proportion of theseremains show cut marks and percussion marks resulting from defleshing and bone fracturing, and a small proportion of bonesalso show tooth marks. Previous taphonomic studies of FN3 suggested that the hominins had secondary access to the preyleftovers abandoned by sabretooth cats and other primary predators. However, a recent analysis by Yravedra et al. (2021) ofthe frequency of anthropogenic marks and tooth marks has concluded that the hominins had primary access to the carcassesof a wide variety of ungulate prey, even though the frequency of evisceration marks is strikingly low. In this rebuttal, weanalyse the patterns of bone preservation in FN3, which show that the exploitation of bone marrow by the hominins afterhammerstone breakage was a usual activity at the site. Our study also reviews the evidence available on the lesser abilities ofsabretooth cats for carcass processing compared to pantherine felids. This reinforces the hypothesis that primary predatorsprovided the hominins the opportunity to scavenge sizeable chunks of meat and bone marrow of their prey carcasses beforethe arrival of hyaenas. Finally, we also provide new inferences on resource availability and competition intensity among themembers of the carnivore guild in FN3, which reinforce our interpretation that a secondary access by the Oldowan homininsto the prey leftovers of sabretooth cats was an optimal foraging strategy in the Guadix-Baza Depression.
PB Springer
YR 2022
FD 2022
LK https://hdl.handle.net/10630/26276
UL https://hdl.handle.net/10630/26276
LA eng
NO Palmqvist, Rodríguez-Gómez, G., Martínez-Navarro, B., Espigares, M. P., Figueirido, B., Ros-Montoya, S., Guerra-Merchán, A., Granados, A., García-Aguilar, J. M., & Pérez-Claros, J. A. (2023). Déjà vu: on the use of meat resources by sabretooth cats, hominins, and hyaenas in the Early Pleistocene site of Fuente Nueva 3 (Guadix-Baza Depression, SE Spain). Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, 15(2), 17–. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-022-01712-1
NO Funding for open access publishing: Universidad Málaga/CBUA This work has been granted by projects CGL-2016-78577-P, CGL-2016-80975-P, and PID2019-111185GB-I00 of the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and University, “Junta de Andalucía” (FEDER) project UMA18-FEDERJA-188, “Generalitat de Catalunya” grant GENCAT 2017SGR 859, and by Research Group RNM-146 from “Junta de Andalucía.”Funding for open access charge: Universidad de Málaga / CBUA
DS RIUMA. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Málaga
RD 20 ene 2026