Morphological, biometric and taphonomic analyses of Holocene gerbils from Guenfouda (Eastern Morocco) and first mention of Gerbillus henleyi in a fossil record

ABSTRACT

The Guenfouda cave, located in eastern Morocco, has yielded an abundant macro- and microvertebrate fauna associated with a rich lithic industry attributed to several cultures (Middle Stone Age, Later Stone Age and Neolithic). Among the microfauna, on the basis of new morphological and biometric data of the upper and lower first molars, we identified two gerbillines of the genus Gerbillus collected from the upper levels of an Holocene age. Gerbillus henleyi is here identified for the first time in the fossil record of North Africa, while G. campestris has been cited previously at this site and in many other Pleistocene and Holocene sites in the Maghreb. The taphonomic study concluded that a medium-sized nocturnal predator (possibly Tyto alba) was likely to be the source of the accumulation of small mammals in the filling of the Guenfouda cave. The palaeoecological reconstruction based on the whole faunal spectrum indicates a semi-open steppic landscape, with patches of more wooded areas and water ponds or streams, which is also characteristic for this region at present.

KEYWORDS:

• Rodents
• Gerbillinae
• Holocene
• eastern Morocco
• palaeontology
• taphonomy
• palaeoenvironments

Data availability statement

The authors confirm that the data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article.

Acknowledgments

The Faculty of Sciences of Mohamed First University at Oujda provided us with the logistical means to carry out excavations in the Guenfouda cave; our thanks go to the excavation team. ¹⁴C dating was performed on charcoal remains at the Centre de Datation par le Radiocarbon, Lyon, France (Lyon-15389-SacA-53713). We also thank the technical team of the Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) of the Faculty of Sciences of Oujda for helping us to take high-resolution pictures, and the “Biodiversity, Ecology and Genome” Laboratory of the Faculty of Sciences of Rabat, for allowing us to use its collections of current specimens. We warmly thank Salvador Bailon (MNHN, Paris) for providing us information about the identification and counts of amphibians and squamates of Guenfouda. We thank also Pr Hamid Hadoumi for his contribution to the description and illustration of the stratigraphic sequence, and Mohamed Amezian for the English revision. Finally, we would like to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their valuable corrections and comments that allowed to improve the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.