A preliminary account of the rodents from Pleistocene levels at Grotte des Contrebandiers (Smuggler's Cave), Morocco

Abstract

New excavations at Grotte des Contrebandiers, Temara, Morocco, have uncovered a micromammal fauna from Pleistocene levels of the cave comprising at least three rodent genera: Meriones, Gerbillus and Mus. This paper presents a preliminary systematic account of the rodents. Taphonomically, the assemblage is unusual for preserving micromammals in relatively low abundance compared with other, nearby cave sites of similar age.

Keywords:

• Aterian
• Muridae
• Murinae
• Gerbillinae

Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge the support of the Institut National des Sciences de l'Archéologie et du Patrimoine (INSAP) for permission to conduct this research, assistance in exporting specimens for analysis, for support during the excavations and for approving the publication of results. The authors gratefully acknowledge two reviewers, D. Geraads and C. Denys, for their helpful comments on an earlier version of the paper. Thanks also are due to the organisers of the first conference on North African Vertebrate Paleontology convened in Marrakech, 2009.

 The research would not have been possible without the efforts of Utsav Schurmans, Harold Dibble and Mohamed Abdeljellil El Hajraoui who organised the excavations. Thanks also to many student excavators and professional colleagues who worked on the excavation. We also gratefully acknowledge Dwight Romanovicz at the University of Texas at Austin Institute for Cellular and Molecular Biology microscopy facility for his help with creating images of the specimens.