Carrying Capacity, Available Meat and the Fossil Record of the Orce Sites (Baza Basin, Spain)

Author, as appears in the article.: Rodriguez-Gomez, Guillermo; Espigares, M Patrocinio; Martinez-Navarro, Bienvenido; Ros-Montoya, Sergio; Guerra-Merchan, Antonio; Martin-Gonzalez, Jesus A; Campana, Isidoro; Perez-Ramos, Alejandro; Granados, Alejandro; Garcia-Aguilar, Jose Manuel; Rodriguez-Ruiz, Maria Dolores; Palmqvist, Paul

Department: Història i Història de l'Art

URV's Author/s: Martínez Navarro, Bienvenido

Keywords: Barranco león Carnivore guil Competition intensity Crocuta-crocuta Early pleistocene Fuente nueva 3 Fuente nueva-3 orce Human-settlements Isotopic evidence Large mammals Lower pleistocene site Prey biomass Prey biomass,large mammals,taphonomy,early pleistocene,western europe,venta micena,fuente nueva 3,barranco le & oacute Resource availability Spotted hyaenas Taphonomy Venta micena Venta-micena orce Western europe

Abstract: The Early Pleistocene sites of Orce in southeastern Spain, including Fuente Nueva-3 (FN3), Barranco Le & oacute;n (BL) and Venta Micena (VM), provide important insights into the earliest hominin populations and Late Villafranchian large mammal communities. Dated to approximately 1.4 million years ago, FN3 and BL preserve abundant Oldowan tools, cut marks and a human primary tooth, indicating hominin activity. VM, approximately 1.6 million years old, is an outstanding site because it preserves an exceptionally rich assemblage of large mammals and predates the presence of hominins, providing a context for pre-human conditions in the region. Research suggests that both hominins and giant hyenas were essential to the accumulation of skeletal remains at FN3 and BL, with secondary access to meat resources exploited by saber-toothed felids. This aim of this study aims to correlate the relative abundance of large herbivores at these sites with their estimates of Carrying Capacity (CC) and Total Available Biomass (TAB) using the PSEco model, which incorporates survival and mortality profiles to estimate these parameters in paleoecosystems. Our results show: (i) similarities between quarries VM3 and VM4 and (ii) similarities of these quarries with BL-D (level D), suggesting a similar formation process; (iii) that the role of humans would be secondary in BL-D and FN3-LAL (Lower Archaeological Level), although with a greater human influence in FN3-LAL due to the greater presence of horses and small species; and (iv) that FN3-UAL (Upper Archaeological Level) shows similarities with the expected CC values for FN3/BL, consistent with a natural trap of quicksand scenario, where the large mammal species were trapped according to their abundance and body mass, as there is a greater presence of rhinos and mammoths due to the greater weight per unit area exerted by their legs. Given the usefulness of this approach, we propose to apply it first to sites that have been proposed to function as natural traps.

Thematic Areas: Earth and planetary sciences (miscellaneous) Earth-surface processes Geosciences, multidisciplinary

licence for use: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/es/

Author's mail: bienvenido.martinez@urv.cat

Record's date: 2025-02-18

Paper version: info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

Paper original source: Quaternary. 7 (3): 37-

APA: Rodriguez-Gomez, Guillermo; Espigares, M Patrocinio; Martinez-Navarro, Bienvenido; Ros-Montoya, Sergio; Guerra-Merchan, Antonio; Martin-Gonzalez, Jesu (2024). Carrying Capacity, Available Meat and the Fossil Record of the Orce Sites (Baza Basin, Spain). Quaternary, 7(3), 37-. DOI: 10.3390/quat7030037

Licence document URL: https://repositori.urv.cat/ca/proteccio-de-dades/

Entity: Universitat Rovira i Virgili

Journal publication year: 2024

Publication Type: Journal Publications