Cargando…
Hyaenas and early humans in the latest Early Pleistocene of South-Western Europe
Throughout the Pleistocene, early humans and carnivores frequented caves and large rock-shelters, usually generating bone accumulations. The well-preserved late Early Pleistocene sedimentary sequence at Cueva Negra del Estrecho del Río Quípar (CNERQ) has provided substantial evidence concerning the...
Autores principales: | , , , , |
---|---|
Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Nature Publishing Group UK
2021
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8674336/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34912011 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-03547-7 |
_version_ | 1784615629635977216 |
---|---|
author | Linares-Matás, Gonzalo J. Fernández Ruiz, Norman Haber Uriarte, María López Martínez, Mariano Walker, Michael J. |
author_facet | Linares-Matás, Gonzalo J. Fernández Ruiz, Norman Haber Uriarte, María López Martínez, Mariano Walker, Michael J. |
author_sort | Linares-Matás, Gonzalo J. |
collection | PubMed |
description | Throughout the Pleistocene, early humans and carnivores frequented caves and large rock-shelters, usually generating bone accumulations. The well-preserved late Early Pleistocene sedimentary sequence at Cueva Negra del Estrecho del Río Quípar (CNERQ) has provided substantial evidence concerning the behavioural and adaptive skills of early humans in Western Europe, such as butchery practices, lithic technology or tending fire, whilst also bearing witness to the bone-altering activities of carnivores. Recent fieldwork has allowed the re-examination of the spatial and taphonomical nature of the macrofaunal assemblage from the upper layers of Complex 2. These layers are somewhat different from most of the underlying sequence, in showing quite a high representation of cranial and post-cranial bones of large mammals, including several Megaloceros carthaginiensis antlers. The presence of Crocuta sp. at Cueva Negra represents one of the earliest instances of this genus in Western Eurasia. Identification of several juvenile Crocuta sp. remains alongside coprolites and bones with carnivore damage, indicates sporadical hyaenid denning activity. Furthermore, the presence of bones with percussion and cut-marks near to several hammerstones suggests a clear albeit limited anthropogenic input. We interpret the available taphonomical and spatial evidence from these layers as reflecting a multi-patterned palimpsest, likely representing the non-simultaneous and short-lived co-existence of hyaenas, humans, and other small carnivores in the Cueva Negra palaeolandscape during the final phase of sedimentation preserved at the site. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8674336 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | Nature Publishing Group UK |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-86743362021-12-20 Hyaenas and early humans in the latest Early Pleistocene of South-Western Europe Linares-Matás, Gonzalo J. Fernández Ruiz, Norman Haber Uriarte, María López Martínez, Mariano Walker, Michael J. Sci Rep Article Throughout the Pleistocene, early humans and carnivores frequented caves and large rock-shelters, usually generating bone accumulations. The well-preserved late Early Pleistocene sedimentary sequence at Cueva Negra del Estrecho del Río Quípar (CNERQ) has provided substantial evidence concerning the behavioural and adaptive skills of early humans in Western Europe, such as butchery practices, lithic technology or tending fire, whilst also bearing witness to the bone-altering activities of carnivores. Recent fieldwork has allowed the re-examination of the spatial and taphonomical nature of the macrofaunal assemblage from the upper layers of Complex 2. These layers are somewhat different from most of the underlying sequence, in showing quite a high representation of cranial and post-cranial bones of large mammals, including several Megaloceros carthaginiensis antlers. The presence of Crocuta sp. at Cueva Negra represents one of the earliest instances of this genus in Western Eurasia. Identification of several juvenile Crocuta sp. remains alongside coprolites and bones with carnivore damage, indicates sporadical hyaenid denning activity. Furthermore, the presence of bones with percussion and cut-marks near to several hammerstones suggests a clear albeit limited anthropogenic input. We interpret the available taphonomical and spatial evidence from these layers as reflecting a multi-patterned palimpsest, likely representing the non-simultaneous and short-lived co-existence of hyaenas, humans, and other small carnivores in the Cueva Negra palaeolandscape during the final phase of sedimentation preserved at the site. Nature Publishing Group UK 2021-12-15 /pmc/articles/PMC8674336/ /pubmed/34912011 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-03547-7 Text en © The Author(s) 2021 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . |
spellingShingle | Article Linares-Matás, Gonzalo J. Fernández Ruiz, Norman Haber Uriarte, María López Martínez, Mariano Walker, Michael J. Hyaenas and early humans in the latest Early Pleistocene of South-Western Europe |
title | Hyaenas and early humans in the latest Early Pleistocene of South-Western Europe |
title_full | Hyaenas and early humans in the latest Early Pleistocene of South-Western Europe |
title_fullStr | Hyaenas and early humans in the latest Early Pleistocene of South-Western Europe |
title_full_unstemmed | Hyaenas and early humans in the latest Early Pleistocene of South-Western Europe |
title_short | Hyaenas and early humans in the latest Early Pleistocene of South-Western Europe |
title_sort | hyaenas and early humans in the latest early pleistocene of south-western europe |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8674336/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34912011 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-03547-7 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT linaresmatasgonzaloj hyaenasandearlyhumansinthelatestearlypleistoceneofsouthwesterneurope AT fernandezruiznorman hyaenasandearlyhumansinthelatestearlypleistoceneofsouthwesterneurope AT haberuriartemaria hyaenasandearlyhumansinthelatestearlypleistoceneofsouthwesterneurope AT lopezmartinezmariano hyaenasandearlyhumansinthelatestearlypleistoceneofsouthwesterneurope AT walkermichaelj hyaenasandearlyhumansinthelatestearlypleistoceneofsouthwesterneurope |