Small-mammal indicators of biochronology at Cueva Negra del Estrecho del Río Quípar (Caravaca de la Cruz, Murcia, SE Spain)

Abstract

Abundant small-mammal teeth excavated at the Palaeolithic site of Cueva Negra del Estrecho del Río Quípar have morphological and metric characteristics that are shown to correspond to Iberomys huescarensis, Stenocranius gregaloides, Terricola arvalidens, Victoriamys chalinei, Mimomys savini, Pliomys episcopalis, Crictetulus (Allocricetus) bursae, Apodemus cf. sylvaticus, Eliomys quercinus, Sciurus sp., Oryctolagus giberti, Lepus sp., Prolagus calpensis, Crocidura kornfeldi, Neomys sp., Sorex sp., Erinaceus cf. europaeus). These taxa have been described in the late Early Pleistocene of the Iberian Peninsula. The biochronological analysis derived from the study of arvicolid remains in Cueva Negra is consistent with the reverse magnetic polarity of the entire sedimentary fill, indicating that they accumulated during the Matuyama magnetochron, between 0.99 and 0.78 Ma.

Keywords:

• Arvicolidae
• late Early Pleistocene
• Spain
• Murcia
• Cueva Negra

Aknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the numerous participants in the field campaigns for their help. We thank Alfonso J. Legaz López (who started the microfauna study of the site), Ángel T. Buitrago López, Azucena Avilés Fernández and Jon Ortega Rodrigáñez who took part in the classification and identification of the remains. We thank Antonio Ruiz Bustos, Gloria Cuenca Bescós and Sara E. Rhodes for their welcome advice and two anonymous reviewers for helpful suggestions.