Biochronological data inferred from the early Pleistocene Arvicolinae (Mammalia, Rodentia) of the El Chaparral site (Sierra del Chaparral, Cádiz, southwestern Spain)

ABSTRACT

In this paper are described the arvicolines from El Chaparral site (Villaluenga del Rosario, Cádiz, Southwestern Spain). Due to their wide geographical distributions and rapid evolutionary rates, arvicolines are especially useful for biostratigraphical purposes. The stratigraphic layers of El Chaparral have yielded arvicolines remains of the genera Allophaiomys, Iberomys, Pliomys, and Terricola. The presence of these rodents together the other vertebrates recovered allows to determinate the age of the El Chaparral site and compare our data with other Iberian Pleistocene sites, such as of the Sierra de Atapuerca. El Chaparral site ranges between the Jaramillo Subchron (1.07-0.99 Ma) and shortly after the Brunhes-Matuyama transition at 0.78 Ma covering a important time span for the knowledge of the earliest humans occupations in western Europe.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors are grateful to the editor Prof. T. Martin, and reviewers Prof. R. Martin and Dr. L. Maul for valuable comments on the manuscript. This paper is part of projects CGL2009-07896 and SGR2009-324. J.M.L.-G. has been supported by a postdoctoral grant from the Juan de la Cierva Subprogram (JCI-2009-04026), with the financial sponsorship of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation.

Handling editor: Thomas Martin