The Vallparadís section (Terrassa, Iberian Peninsula) and the latest Villafranchian faunas of Europe
Introduction
The faunal turnover that occurred around the Early/Middle Pleistocene transition in Europe involved the extinction of most Villafranchian faunal elements. These include many carnivoran taxa, such as the giant hyena Pachycrocuta brevirostris, the felids Megantereon whitei, Acinonyx pardinensis, Panthera gombaszoegensis and Puma pardoides, and the pack-hunting canid Lycaon lycaonoides, as well as the equids Equus altidens and Equus sussenbornensis. On the other hand, species of African origin arrived to Europe by this time, including the lion (Panthera leo), the leopard (Panthera pardus) and the spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta), as well as the straight-tusked elephant (Elephas (Palaeoloxodon) antiquus) and the auroch (Bos primigenius). Simultaneously, species of Asian origin, such as the steppe mammoth (Mammuthus trogontherii), the red deer (Cervus elaphus), an Indian bovid (Hemibos galerianus), the horse (Equus ferus) and probably the wild boar (Sus scrofa), among others, are first recorded in Europe by this time (Martínez-Navarro et al., 2009a, Martínez-Navarro et al., 2009b). In the paleontological literature, this faunal turnover is known as the ‘C. crocuta event’ (Martínez-Navarro, 2010; see also Palombo et al., 2008, for additional discussion). This major faunal renewal occurred during a time span ranging from 1.1 to 0.6 Ma, thus roughly coinciding in time with the major global climatic changes that are known as the Middle Pleistocene Transition (MPT; Clark et al., 2006) or Mid-Pleistocene Revolution (MPR; Maslin and Ridgwell, 2005), which spanned between 1.25 and 0.7 Ma. Before the onset of this faunal turnover, climate was dominated by 41 ky obliquity orbital cycles, whereas towards its end, this mode had shifted to a highly non-linear system dominated by 100 ky periodicity with asymmetric glacial/interglacial cycles (Clark et al., 2006, Almogi-Labin, in press). These changes had an important effect on seasonality, affecting the type and the structure of the vegetation cover. In the Mediterranean area, temperature and humidity decreased slightly, and the short alternations between deciduous forests and open landscapes were substituted by longer alternations between steppe and deciduous forests (Suc and Popescu, 2005, Bertini, in press, Palombo, in press). This time interval of major climatic changes and intense faunal renewal, elapsing over nearly 600 ky, is known regarding large mammal biochronology as the Epivillafranchian Biochron or Villafranchian–Galerian transition (Kahlke, 2007, Rook and Martínez-Navarro, 2010, Martínez-Navarro, 2010).
Regarding early European hominins, the latest Early Pleistocene humans might have taken advantage from these unstable climatic conditions and changing mammalian guilds (Palombo, in press). Several latest Early Pleistocene and early Middle Pleistocene localities have yielded human and/or lithic remains. Some of these localities, such as Vallonnet (de Lumley et al., 1988) and Soleilhac (Bonifay and Mergoil, 1988) in France, and Trinchera Elefante of Atapuerca in Spain (Carbonell et al., 2008), show a typically Villafranchian mammalian assemblage together with Mode I artifacts. On the other hand, other localities, such as the lower layers of Trinchera Dolina in Spain (Falguères et al., 1999) and the Pakefield site in Great Britain (Parfitt et al., 2005), display Galerian elements associated to Mode I lithic artifacts and, in the case of the Spanish locality, evidences of primary and early access to the carcasses (Diéz et al., 1999). From a biochronological viewpoint, both groups of localities can be distinguished by the presence of the short-faced hyena P. brevirostris in the first group, and that of the spotted hyena C. crocuta in the second. Recently, Martínez-Navarro et al., 2007, Martínez-Navarro et al., 2009a, Martínez-Navarro et al., 2009b, Martínez-Navarro et al., 2010 (see also Martínez-Navarro and Rabinovich, in press) established a parallelism between the dispersal into Eurasia of the Acheulian culture (Mode II tools) and the dispersal of the genus Bos. They occur together in the Israeli localities of Ubeidiya (ca 1.2–1.5 Ma), which has yielded a primitive Acheulian assemblage, and Gesher Benot Ya’akov (ca 0.7–0.8 Ma), which shows a more developed Acheulian technology. In Europe, this association is first recorded at Venosa Notarchirico (Cassoli et al., 1999, Piperno, 1999), coinciding with the more stable climatic conditions that characterize the end of the Middle Pleistocene Transition.
Unfortunately, there are only a few European localities recording this crucial moment of life history on Earth from a faunal, floral and stratigraphical perspective. Most Epivillafranchian localities in Europe, such as Vallonnet in France (Moullé, 1992), Untermassfeld in Germany (Kahlke, 1995) and Colle Curti in Italy (Coltorti et al., 1998), correspond to the Jaramillo or a pre-Jaramillo paleomagnetic subchron, and do not provide multiple fossiliferous levels recording this transition through a long and continuous stratigraphic sequence. On the contrary, the 20 m-thick Vallparadís composite section in Terrassa (Vallès-Penedès Basin, NE Iberian Peninsula) displays multiple fossiliferous levels, which have yielded abundant macro and micromammal remains (Berástegui et al., 2000, Alba et al., 2008a, Madurell-Malapeira et al., 2009a). Furthermore, these mammalian remains are associated to macrobotanical remains and an accurate pollen record (Postigo Mijarra et al., 2007), and the several fossiliferous levels can be accurately dated thanks to detailed litho and magnetostratigraphic correlation (Madurell-Malapeira et al., 2009a). The Vallparadís section includes the Cal Guardiola and Vallparadís sites excavated during the last 15 years (Alba et al., 2008a, Alba et al., 2008b, Madurell-Malapeira et al., 2009a, Madurell-Malapeira et al., 2009b), spanning from slightly before the base of the Jaramillo subchron to the early Middle Pleistocene. As such, this section documents the latest Villafranchian faunas of Europe, associated with the earliest Galerian elements such as E. (P.) antiquus, Sus sp. and Ursus deningeri. Here we describe the geological, paleomagnetic, faunal and floral evidence from this succession, in order to improve the current knowledge of the Villafranchian–Galerian transition and the faunal and environmental changes that preceded the arrival of the Acheulian culture into Europe.
Section snippets
Regional and geological setting
The Vallparadís composite section includes the paleontological sites of Cal Guardiola and Vallparadís, which are situated in the western and eastern bank, respectively, of the Torrent de Vallparadís, within the town of Terrassa (el Vallès Occidental, Catalonia, Spain) (Fig. 1). These deposits are located in the Vallès-Penedès Basin, a narrow half-graben trending NE-SW, parallel to the Catalan margin. This basin is bounded along its NW margin by the master normal fault, which is Neogene in age (
Materials and methods
The Cal Guardiola locality (CGR) was discovered in early 1997, during the construction of a socio-sanitary building next to the Mútua de Terrassa. As a result of this construction works, paleontological excavations were carried out there. The paleontological excavation of 691 m2 yielded nearly 3000 macro and microvertebrate remains, as well as fossil wood and pollen (Berástegui et al., 2000, Madurell-Malapeira, 2006, Postigo Mijarra et al., 2007, Madurell-Malapeira et al., 2009b). In 2005, the
Magnetostratigraphic study
Visual inspection of the demagnetization diagrams (Figs. S1 and S2) enabled the identification of various viscous components at low temperature and a characteristic remanent magnetization at temperatures above 400 °C. The direction of the ChRM component was calculated by means of principal component analysis in 73 samples in EVT and 36 in CGR, selecting a minimum of three demagnetization steps within the 300–680 °C temperature range. Virtual Geomagnetic Pole (VGP) latitudes were calculated for
Large mammal fauna
The large mammal record of the Vallparadís section includes 27 species of carnivores, artiodactyls, perissodactyls and proboscideans (Fig. 3, Fig. 4).
In the late Early Pleistocene levels, the most abundant material corresponds to large-bodied species, such as H. antiquus, Stephanorhinus hundsheimensis and E. altidens. Small to medium-sized herbivores are poorly represented, and only dentognathic remains and antlers of Dama vallonnetensis are abundant among non mega-herbivores. The scavenging
Conclusions
The late Early to early Middle Pleistocene section from Torrent de Vallparadís records ca 600 ky of faunal evolution in south-western Europe in multiple stratigraphic horizons that are well-calibrated on the basis of magnetostratigraphic and small mammal biostratigraphic data. The time interval recorded in this section coincides with highly significant climatic changes at a global scale (the MPT), which had important effects on the composition of mammalian assemblages and, as a consequence,
Acknowledgments
This paper has been possible thanks to the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (CGL2008-00325/BTE, and RYC-2009-04533 to D.M.A.) and the Generalitat de Catalunya (2009 SGR 754 GRC). Fieldwork at Cal Guardiola was financed by the Mútua de Terrassa and Diputació de Barcelona. Fieldwork at Vallparadís was financed by Gestió d'Infraestructures, S.A., under the supervision of the Generalitat de Catalunya. We sincerely thank B. Martínez-Navarro, J.R. Stewart and the Associate Editor J. Carrión
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