RT Journal Article
T1 The Epivillafranchian and the arrival of pigs into Europe
A1 Martínez-Navarro, Bienvenido
A1 Madurell-Malapeira, Joan
A1 Ros-Montoya, Sergio
A1 Espigares-Ortiz, María Patrocinio
A1 Medin, Tsegai
A1 Hortolá, Polocarp
A1 Palmqvist-Barrena, Carlos Paul
K1 Paleontología
AB Suids are found in Europe before and during the Olduvai subchron, including the Fonelas P-1 (~2.0 Ma), in which the remains have been ascribed to Potamochoerus magnus, and many other localities that record the presence of Sus strozzii. However, there is no pig record in the biochronological range comprised between the post Tasso Faunal Unit, which marks the base of the Late Villafranchian (~1.8 Ma), and their arrival in Western Europe at layer TE9 from Sima del Elefante, Atapuerca, Northern Spain (~1.2 Ma), where pigs are recorded under the name of Sus sp., and at the sites of Untermassfeld, Vallonnet and layer EVT12 of Vallparadís Estació, dated 1.1-1.0 Ma (MIS31). Later, the genus Sus is recorded everywhere in Europe as a ubiquitous member of the Epivillafranchian/Galerian and posterior faunas. When pigs are in an ecosystem, they use to be abundant in the large mammal community given their opportunistic feeding behavior and high reproductive success. For this reason, suids are usually preserved in the fossil assemblages after their dispersal and colonization of a geographic region. The arrival of suids phylogenetically related to Sus gr. scrofa into Europe marks the end of the Late Villafranchian and the beginning of the Epivillafranchian, which is approximately dated at ~1.2 Ma. Given that suids are omnivorous, generalist mammals with bunodont teeth that do not tolerate very low temperatures, this suggests that their colonization of Europe can be related to a change in the ecosystems and climate. In addition, the arrival of suids postdates the earliest arrival of hominins into Western Europe, which is documented at the Orce sites of Barranco León-D and Fuente Nueva-3 (~1.5-1.2 Ma). In these sites, rich faunal assemblages, abundant lithic artifacts and one human tooth have been unearthed after more than twenty years of xcavations, but no evidence of pigs has yet been detected.
PB Elsevier
YR 2015
FD 2015
LK https://hdl.handle.net/10630/33530
UL https://hdl.handle.net/10630/33530
LA eng
NO Bienvenido Martínez-Navarro, Joan Madurell-Malapeira, Sergio Ros-Montoya, María-Patrocinio Espigares, Tsegai Medin, Policarp Hortolà, Paul Palmqvist, The Epivillafranchian and the arrival of pigs into Europe, Quaternary International, Volume 389, 2015, Pages 131-138, ISSN 1040-6182, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2015.09.039
NO Este trabajo forma parte de un proyecto autorizado y financiado por la Consejería de Educación, Cultura y Deportes de la Junta de Andalucía (contrato Exp. B090678SV18BC) y también ha sido apoyado por subvenciones del Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad de España CGL2010-15326/BTE, CGL2011-28681, CGL2011- 30334/BTE, proyecto P11-HUM- 7248 de la Junta de Andalucía, subvención HAR2010-19957/HIST, Generalitat de Catalunya GENCAT 2009 SGR 324 y 2009 SGR 754 GRC
DS RIUMA. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Málaga
RD 27 ene 2026