Articles producció científica> Història i Història de l'Art

Discontinuity of human presence at Atapuerca during the early Middle Pleistocene: A matter of ecological competition?

  • Identification data

    Identifier: PC:891
    Handle: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11797/PC891
    Authors:
    Rodríguez-Gómez, G., Mateos, A., Martín-González, J.A., Blasco, R., Rosell, J., Rodríguez, J.
    Abstract:
    10.1371/journal.pone.0101938

  • Others:

    Author, as appears in the article.: Rodríguez-Gómez, G., Mateos, A., Martín-González, J.A., Blasco, R., Rosell, J., Rodríguez, J.
    Papper version: info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
    Link to the original source: http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0101938
    Department: Història i Història de l'Art
    Licence document URL: https://repositori.urv.cat/ca/proteccio-de-dades/
    Article's DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0101938
    Abstract: Increasing evidence suggests that the European human settlement is older than 1.2 Ma. However, there is a fierce debate about the continuity or discontinuity of the early human settlement of Europe. In particular, evidence of human presence in the interval 0.7-0.5 Ma is scarce in comparison with evidence for the previous and later periods. Here, we present a case study in which the environmental conditions at Sierra de Atapuerca in the early Middle Pleistocene, a period without evidence of human presence, are compared with the conditions in the previous period, for which a relatively intense human occupation is documented. With this objective in mind, the available resources for a human population and the intensity of competition between secondary consumers during the two periods are compared using a mathematical model. The Gran Dolina site TD8 level, dated to 0.7-0.6 Ma, is taken as representative of the period during which Atapuerca was apparently not occupied by humans. Conditions at TD8 are compared with those of the previous period, represented by the TD6-2 level, which has yielded abundant evidence of intense human occupation. The results show that survival opportunities for a hypothetical human population were lower at TD8 than they were at TD6-2. Increased resource competition between secondary consumers arises as a possible explanation for the absence of human occupation at Atapuerca in the early Middle Pleistocene
    Entity: Universitat Rovira i Virgili.
    Journal publication year: 2014
    Keyword in other language: consumer competition comparative study community ecology
    Journal volume: 9