The management of bone tools from the Bronze Age site of El Portalón of Cueva Mayor, Sierra de Atapuerca, Burgos

In this paper we analyze the set of Bronze Age bone tools recovered at the archaeological site of El Portalón of Cueva Mayor in the Sierra de Atapuerca (Burgos). The Bronze Age cultural period is the best represented in the cavity and its study has forced us to unify the different excavation and stratigraphical criteria undertaken from the earliest archaeological excavations developed by J.M. Apellániz during the 70s until the excavations of the current research team (EIA) since 2000. We propose here for the first time a relationship between the initial system of “beds” used by Apellániz and our recent sedimentary sequence that recognizes eleven stratigraphic levels radiometrically dated from the late Upper Pleistocene to the Middle Age. Within the bone industry assemblage we recognize a large variety of utensils and ornamental elements, with native and allochthonous features, that make evident a regional as well as long distance relationships of these populations of the interior of the Iberian Peninsula during the recent Prehistory.

First Triassic tetrapod (Sauropterygia, Nothosauridae) from Castilla y León: evidence of an unknown taxon for the Spanish record

Several vertebrae of a sauropterygian specimen have been recovered in Fuencaliente de Medinaceli (Soria Province, Castilla y León, Spain). The remains come from Middle–Upper Triassic Muschelkalk Facies. This finding represents the first documented evidence of a Triassic tetrapod in Castilla y León. The vertebrae belong to Nothosaurus, a sauropterygian genus found in Europe, Middle East, North of Africa and China. This genus is poorly-known in the Iberian record. The new remains constitute the first evidence of the species Nothosaurus giganteus, or a related taxon, in the Iberian Peninsula. This study reveals the occurrence of at least two species of the sauropterygian Nothosaurus in the Spanish record.

Fossil associations from the middle and upper Eocene strata of the Pamplona Basin and surrounding areas (Navarre, western Pyrenees)

Fossil associations from the middle and upper Eocene (Bartonian and Priabonian) sedimentary succession of the Pamplona Basin are described. This succession was accumulated in the western part of the South Pyrenean peripheral foreland basin and extends from deep-marine turbiditic (Ezkaba Sandstone Formation) to deltaic (Pamplona Marl, Ardanatz Sandstone and Ilundain Marl formations) and marginal marine deposits (Gendulain Formation). The micropalaeontological content is high. It is dominated by foraminifera, and common ostracods and other microfossils are also present. The fossil ichnoasssemblages include at least 23 ichnogenera and 28 ichnospecies indicative of Nereites, Cruziana, Glossifungites and ?Scoyenia-Mermia ichnofacies. Body macrofossils of 78 taxa corresponding to macroforaminifera, sponges, corals, bryozoans, brachiopods, annelids, molluscs, arthropods, echinoderms and vertebrates have been identified. Both the number of ichnotaxa and of species (e. g. bryozoans, molluscs and condrichthyans) may be considerably higher. Body fossil assemblages are comparable to those from the Eocene of the Nord Pyrenean area (Basque Coast), and also to those from the Eocene of the west-central and eastern part of South Pyrenean area (Aragon and Catalonia). At the European scale, the molluscs assemblages seem endemic from the Pyrenean area, although several Tethyan (Italy and Alps) and Northern elements (Paris basin and Normandy) have been recorded. Palaeontological data of studied sedimentary units fit well with the shallowing process that throughout the middle and late Eocene occurs in the area, according to the sedimentological and stratigraphical data.

Revisiting the Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous of the NW South Iberian Basin: new ages and sedimentary environments

The study of the Upper Jurassic-Lower Cretaceous deposits (Higueruelas, Villar del Arzobispo and Aldea de Cortés Formations) of the South Iberian Basin (NW Valencia, Spain) reveals new stratigraphic and sedimentological data, which have significant implications on the stratigraphic framework, depositional environments and age of these units. The Higueruelas Fm was deposited in a mid-inner carbonate platform where oncolitic bars migrated by the action of storms and where oncoid production progressively decreased towards the uppermost part of the unit. The overlying Villar del Arzobispo Fm has been traditionally interpreted as an inner platform-lagoon evolving into a tidal-flat. Here it is interpreted as an inner-carbonate platform affected by storms, where oolitic shoals protected a lagoon, which had siliciclastic inputs from the continent. The Aldea de Cortés Fm has been previously interpreted as a lagoon surrounded by tidal-flats and fluvial-deltaic plains. Here it is reinterpreted as a coastal wetland where siliciclastic muddy deposits interacted with shallow fresh to marine water bodies, aeolian dunes and continental siliciclastic inputs. The contact between the Higueruelas and Villar del Arzobispo Fms, classically defined as gradual, is also interpreted here as rapid. More importantly, the contact between the Villar del Arzobispo and Aldea de Cortés Fms, previously considered as unconformable, is here interpreted as gradual. The presence of Alveosepta in the Villar del Arzobispo Fm suggests that at least part of this unit is Kimmeridgian, unlike the previously assigned Late Tithonian-Middle Berriasian age. Consequently, the underlying Higueruelas Fm, previously considered Tithonian, should not be younger than Kimmeridgian. Accordingly, sedimentation of the Aldea de Cortés Fm, previously considered Valangian-Hauterivian, probably started during the Tithonian and it may be considered part of the regressive trend of the Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous cycle. This is consistent with the dinosaur faunas, typically Jurassic, described in the Villar del Arzobispo and Aldea de Cortés Fms.

Systematics of African Amphicyonidae, with descriptions of new material from Napak (Uganda) and Grillental (Namibia)

The Early Miocene Napak XV locality (ca 20.5 Ma), Uganda, has yielded an interesting assemblage of fossils, including the very well represented amphicyonid Hecubides euryodon. The remarkable find of a nearly complete mandible, unfortunately with poorly preserved dentition, together with new dental remains allow us to obtain a better idea about the morphology and variability of this species. Additionally, we describe a newly discovered mandible of Hecubides euryodon from the Grillental-VI locality (Sperrgebiet, Namibia), which is the most complete and diagnostic Amphicyonidae material found in this area. Comparisons with Cynelos lemanensis from Saint Gérand le Pouy (France), the type locality, and with an updated sample of the species of amphicyonids described in Africa leads us to validate the genus Hecubides. Hecubides would be phylogenetically related to the medium and large size species of Amphicyonidae from Africa, most of them now grouped into the genera Afrocyon and Myacyon, both endemic to this continent.

Systematic review of Late Jurassic sauropods from the Museu Geológico collections (Lisboa, Portugal)

The Museu Geológico collections house some of the first sauropod references of the Lusitanian Basin Upper Jurassic record, including the Lourinhasaurus alenquerensis and Lusotitan atalaiensis lectotypes, previously considered as new species of the Apatosaurus and Brachiosaurus genera, respectively. Several fragmentary specimens have been classical referred to those taxa, but the most part of these systematic attributions are not supported herein, excluding a caudal vertebra from Maceira (MG 8804) considered as cf. Lusotitan atalaiensis. From the material housed in the Museu Geológico were identified basal eusauropods (indeterminate eusauropods and turiasaurs) and neosauropods (indeterminate neosauropods, diplodods and camarasaurids and basal titanosauriforms). Middle caudal vertebrae with lateral fossae, ventral hollow border by pronounced ventrolateral crests and quadrangular cross-section suggest for the presence of diplodocine diplodocids in north area of the Lusitanian Basin Central Sector during the Late Jurassic. A humerus collected from Praia dos Frades (MG 4976) is attributed to cf. Duriatitan humerocristatus suggesting the presence of shared sauropod forms between the Portugal and United Kingdom during the Late Jurassic. Duriatitan is an indeterminate member of Eusauropoda and the discovery of new material in both territories is necessary to confirm this systematic approach. The studied material is in according with the previous recorded paleobiodiversity for the sauropod clade during the Portuguese Late Jurassic, which includes basal eusauropods (including turiasaurs), diplodocids and macronarians (including camarasaurids and basal titanosauriforms).

The Neolithic of El Niño cave (Ayna, Albacete) in the Sierra del Segura context

Since its excavation in the summer of 1973, El Niño cave has been considered a key site to understand the process of production economy and pottery technology introduction in South-eastern Iberian Peninsula, and especially to approach how such process could have affected people already settled in the Segura mountains. However, data from El Niño cave was very fragmentary, due to the lack of a broad study of Neolithic occupations of the site. In this paper, we present the analysis of pottery, lithic industry and faunal remains, as well as the existing dates from the site´s Holocene levels. The review of different evidence from the site allows suggesting that El Niño cave would have probably acted as a hunting and shepherding station, being a logistical site of larger places. However, limitations due to the fact that we are dealing with a 40- year-old excavation, prevent specifying how the process of Neolithic introduction in the Segura Mountains occurred.

Visibilidad y percepción en la construcción de un paisaje Prehistórico. El caso de Calviá (Mallorca, Islas Baleares)

El presente trabajo se centra en el estudio del papel que juega el control visual del espacio en las prácticas sociales de las comunidades prehistóricas. Este trabajo se articula a partir de un estudio de caso, el término municipal de Calviá, situado en el sureste de la isla de Mallorca, para analizar las diferentes formas de monumentalidad arquitectónica y cómo estas se constituyen cómo un punto de referencia social dentro del paisaje. Partiendo de una amplia horquilla temporal, que abarcaría el Bronce Naviforme (1550-850 AC), el período Talayótico (850-550 AC) y el Postalayótico (550-123 AC), se propone analizar los cambios y pervivencias en la construcción del paisaje, a través de estrategias de visibilidad, percepción y movimiento alrededor de los monumentos arquitectónicos. A través de la perspectiva de la Arqueología del Paisaje y mediante el uso de Sistemas de Información Geográfica (SIG) se propone un análisis de tendencias a largo plazo en la configuración social de un paisaje.