Taphonomic criteria for identifying Iberian lynx dens in quaternary deposits
Rodríguez-Hidalgo, Antonio (Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social)
Sanz Borràs, Montserrat (Universitat de Barcelona. Departament d'Història i Arqueologia)
Daura, Joan (Universitat de Barcelona. Departament d'Història i Arqueologia)
Sánchez Marco, Antonio (Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont)

Date:	2020
Abstract:	For decades, taphonomists have dedicated their efforts to assessing the nature of the massive leporid accumulations recovered at archaeological sites in the northwestern Mediterranean region. Their interest lying in the fact that the European rabbit constituted a critical part of human subsistence during the late Pleistocene and early Holocene. However, rabbits are also a key prey in the food webs of Mediterranean ecosystems and the base of the diet for several specialist predators, including the Iberian lynx (Lynx pardinus). For this reason, the origin of rabbit accumulations in northwestern Mediterranean sites has proved a veritable conundrum. Here, we present the zooarchaeological and taphonomic study of more than 3000 faunal and 140 coprolite remains recovered in layer IIIa of Cova del Gegant (Catalonia, Spain). Our analysis indicates that this layer served primarily as a den for the Iberian lynx. The lynxes modified and accumulated rabbit remains and also died at the site creating an accumulation dominated by the two taxa. However, other agents and processes, including human, intervened in the final configuration of the assemblage. Our study contributes to characterizing the Iberian lynx fossil accumulation differentiating between the faunal assemblages accumulated by lynxes and hominins.
Grants:	Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca 2017/SGR-00011 Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad HAR2017-86509 Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación IJC-2018-037447-I Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación IJCI-2017-33908 Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación RYC-2015-17667 Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca 2017/SGR-86 Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad CGL2016-76431-P
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Subject:	Archaeology ; Environmental sciences ; Palaeontology
Published in:	Scientific reports, Vol. 10 (April 2020) , art. 7225, ISSN 2045-2322

DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-63908-6
PMID: 32350363

17 p, 6.6 MB

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Research literature > UAB research groups literature > Research Centres and Groups (research output) > Experimental sciences > Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont (ICP)
Articles > Research articles
Articles > Published articles