2026-06-01T02:05:32Zhttps://riuma.uma.es/rest/oai/request

oai:riuma.uma.es:10630/243602026-02-03T12:21:04Zcom_10630_2254col_10630_37959

A comparison of the taphonomic attributes of quarries VM3 and VM4 of the Early Pleistocene site of Venta Micena (Baza Basin, SE Spain) Palmqvist-Barrena, Carlos Paul Espigares-Ortiz, María Patrocinio Pérez-Claros, Juan Antonio Figueirido-Castillo, Francisco Borja Guerra-Merchán, Antonio Ros-Montoya, Sergio García-Aguilar, José Manuel Granados, Alejandro Rodríguez-Gómez, Guillermo Martínez-Navarro, Bienvenido Paleontología Tafonomía Fosilización Orce (Granada) Pleistoceno The site of Venta Micena (Guadix-Baza Depression, SE Spain), a rich Fossil-Lagerstätten of late Early Pleistocene age (1.6-1.5 Ma), preserves a diverse assemblage of large mammals. Up to date, >24,000 skeletal remains have been unearthed from the surface excavated (~400 m2) in the two main quarries of the site, VM3 and VM4, which represents a density of fossils of >60/m2. Although this density is not homogeneously recorded across the 80-120 cm thick VM stratum, which outcrops over ~2.5 km, it suggests that tens of millions of fossils were preserved in the micritic limestones of this lithological unit. VM3 has been interpreted as a den of the giant hyena Pachycrocuta brevirostris in the plain that surrounded the Baza paleolake. Taphonomic analyses showed that the hyenas: (i) scavenged the prey hunted by the hypercarnivores, sabertoothed felids and wild dogs; (ii) transported the remains to their communal den as whole carcasses or selected anatomical parts; and (iii) fractured the skeletal parts according to their marrow contents and mineral density, which resulted in well-defined consumption sequences. In the case of VM4, an excavation quarry ~350 m distant from VM3, preliminary taphonomic analyses of the assemblage showed several differences, including: (i) a higher frequency of elements in anatomical connection than in VM3; (ii) a lower proportion of bones tooth-marked by carnivores (5.5%) compared with their frequency in VM3 (29.4%); (iii) a lower proportion of remains with salivary and gastric alterations (0.06% in both cases) than in VM3 (0.34% and 0.15%, respectively); and (iv) a less advanced degree of weathering (90.8% of bones show weathering stage 0 in VM4 compared to 75.9% in VM3). 2022-06-14T09:57:22Z 2022-06-14T09:57:22Z 2022-06-14T09:57:22Z 2022 conference output https://hdl.handle.net/10630/24360 eng The 80th Anniversary of Efremov’s Taphonomy Alcalá de Henares, España 5 junio 2022 open access