A late Ruscinian (Pliocene) rodent fauna from the Granada Basin (SE Spain)

Abstract

The Granada basin is situated in the central sector of the Betic Cordillera in southern Spain (Fig. 1). Its Neogene and Quaternary sediments cover the contact between the Internal and External Zones of the Cordillera. After a marine phase, in the latest Tortonian (middle Turolian) a large continental lake, occupying almost the whole basin, was established; it was fed by the fluvial courses, which drained the surrounding relief (GarciaAlix, 2006). This configuration is broken up in the early Pliocene, and two independent alluvial systems with associated fluviolacustrine facies developed: one in the eastern sector and the other one in the western sector (Garcia-Alix, 2006). In the west of the basin we find the paleo-Cacin braided system occupying the same position as the actual Cacin River (Fig. 1) (Fernandez and Soria, 1987). The sediments come from the southern Betic reliefs (Sierra Almijara, Sierra Tejeda) and have a south-north direction, turning west near the village of Moraleda (Fernandez and Soria, 1987). These deposits are usually attributed to the Plio-Pleistocene, but we now show that they correspond to the lower Pliocene (upper Ruscinian). It is the first evidence of a typical Pliocene mammal fauna in the Granada basin.