Biogeografía e impacto humano en las comunidades de anfibios y reptiles del Cuaternario final en la Península ibérica: la Cueva del Mirador (Atapuerca, Burgos) y la población de Chalcides ocellatus (Scincidae) de la Serra del Molar (Alicante)

Identifier:  TDX:3347

Handle: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11797/TDX3347

Authors:  Bisbal Chinesta, José Francisco

Abstract:
This doctoral thesis presents the first approach to the paleobiogeography of the amphibians and reptiles of the Iberian Peninsula during the final Quaternary, based on a comparative synthesis of the known record until now. Two biotic regions have been established during the late Pleistocene: the first one located in the south and central Iberia, with thermophilic species as the most representative, and the second one in the northern third, dominated by generalist-Eurosiberian species. After the Last Glacial Maximum and throughout the Holocene, the concurrence of generalist-Eurosiberian and thermophilic species occurred in the north, due to the expansion of Mediterranean species, and the possible human introduction of Maghreb species. Within this general context, the importance of climate and human influence on the composition of herpetofauna associations are analyzed in two case studies. The first is the pellets from Cueva del Mirador (Atapuerca), twenty microvertebrate accumulations from the Chalcolithic-Early Bronze period. The taxonomic study has identified 350 individuals from 20 different taxa, mostly herpetofauna. Taphonomic analysis has postulated a category 2 predator, possibly an owl, as the accumulating agent. The statistical analysis shows the existence of quantitative and qualitative differences in their composition, interpreted as seasonal variations between the end of winter and summer. The unique faunistic composition of the pellets is interpreted as a secondary effect of human impact. The herpetofaunistic composition relates these associations to the post-glacial expansion of thermophilic species. The second case study is the population of Chalcides ocellatus from the Serra del Molar, its first Iberian record. The molecular study has determined its origin in northern Egypt and its possible translocation through maritime trade, either ancient or modern, according to the various historical links between the Iberian southeast and the eastern Mediterranean.