Pleistocene and holocene small vertebrates of El Harhoura 2 cave (Rabat–Témara, Morocco): an annotated preliminary taxonomic list

Abstract

Small vertebrates found in archaeological context can provide important information on the evolution of biodiversity and paleoenvironments of a precise geographical region and sometimes on a large interval of time. However, very few studies are specifically dedicated to small fossil vertebrates in north Africa, especially for the end of the Quaternary period. The Late Pleistocene to Middle Holocene succession of El Harhoura 2 cave, situated in the region of Témara (Morocco), has revealed an exceptional richness of small vertebrates' remains, as well as in bones abundance than in species diversity (rodents, shrews, hedgehogs, amphibians, chelonians and squamates). We present here an annotated preliminary taxonomic list of this material.

Keywords:

• small mammals
• amphibians
• reptiles
• taxonomy
• Morocco
• Late Quaternary

Acknowledgements

We thank the Mission Archéologique El Harhoura-Témara (dir. R. Nespoulet and M.A. El Hajraoui) for having procured the material and the Institut National des Sciences de l'Archéologie et du Patrimoine (Rabat) for having permitted to export it for this study in France.

A collaboration with the Institut Scientifique (Rabat) in 2007 allowed to realise modern small vertebrates trapping and osteological preparations for comparison purposes. We thank all the researchers and technicians for their help, and particularly M. El Agbani.

We thank the NSF-RHOI program (T. White and Late Clarck Howell) for its financial help for the participation of some authors to the First International Congress on North African Vertebrate Paleontology (NAVEP 1), 25–27 May 2009, Marrakech, Morocco.

We also take this opportunity to thank the scientific committee and the committee of organisation of the NAVEP 1 for their reception and their effectiveness.

We greatly thank H. Aouraghe, S. Aulagnier and G. Dyke for their constructive comments, revisions and corrections.

This doctoral work (E. Stoetzel) was supported by grants from Region Ile-de-France.

Notes

^1. The Aterian is a culture specific to north Africa and Sahara, belonging to Middle Paleolithic, and extending from 20,000 to more than 100,000 years BP (Debénath et al. 1982; Barton et al. 2009; Jacobs et al. forthcoming).