Rodents from Baza-1 (Guadix-Baza Basin, southeast Spain): filling the gap of the early Pliocene succession in the Betics

ABSTRACT

The Guadix-Baza Basin (Granada, southern Spain) represents one of the best continental records from the late Miocene to the middle Pleistocene in western Europe, but stratigraphic gaps are present in the early Pliocene due to the scarcity of sites from this time. In this article, rodent fossils from the locality of Baza-1 are described, providing new information on a time interval that was previously poorly known. The assemblage includes representatives of the genera Ruscinomys, Apocricetus, Stephanomys, Apodemus, Castillomys, Paraethomys, Occitanomys, Eliomys, Debruijnimys, and Trilophomys, an association that indicates an early Ruscinian age (MN14). A paleoecological analysis indicates that the Guadix-Baza Basin landscape during the early Pliocene was dominated by open herbaceous habitat under warm and dry climatic conditions. Our results contribute to the continuity of the stratigraphic record from the Betic Mountain range.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This study has been authorized by the Consejería de Cultura of the Junta de Andalucía and has been financed by the Town Hall of Baza. The ‘Museo Arqueológico Municipal de Baza’ supported and collaborated in the development of the Baza-1 project. J. M. Jiménez-Arenas was the archaeologist director of the excavation during the 2014 and 2015 seasons. P. Piñero is supported by a FPU predoctoral fellowship (FPU12/02668). This study was also supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (projects number CGL2016-80000-P and CGL2016-80975-P), Generalitat de Catalunya (project number 2014 SGR 901), and CERCA Programme/Generalitat de Catalunya. We thank M. Furió (ICP) and A. Blanco (University of Tübingen) for their help with the identification of the insectivores and fishes, respectively. Comments by J. I. Ortiz-Muñoz are much appreciated. We thank all the participants in the excavation of the Baza-1 site. The authors thank the editor F. Bibi and Y. Kimura and an anonymous reviewer for their comments and suggestions on the manuscript.