Amphibians and reptiles as palaeonvironmental proxies during the Late Pleistocene (MIS3): The case of Stratigraphic Unit V of El Salt, Alcoi, Spain

Rafael Marquina-Blasco,Ana Fagoaga,Vicente D Crespo,Salvador Bailon,Carolina Mallol,Cristo M Hernández,Bertila Galván,Francisco Javier Ruiz-Sánchez

doi:10.1016/j.palaeo.2021.110372

Abstract

The locality of El Salt (Alcoi, Spain) is a key site for understanding the extirpation of Neanderthals in the eastern part of Iberia. In this paper, we analyse an assemblage of amphibians and reptiles from Stratigraphic Unit V (45.2 ± 3.4 ka to 44.7 ± 3.4 ka), which corresponds to one of the last regional records of Neanderthals, to improve knowledge of the palaeoecology and palaeoclimate of this event. The assemblage comprises three anurans (Pelodytes sp., Alytes obstetricans, and Epidalea calamita), two lizards (Lacertidae indet. and Chalcides bedriagai), and five snakes (Colubridae indet., Coronella sp., Coronella sp./Zamenis sp., Natrix maura, and Vipera latastei). Palaeoclimatic reconstruction, based on the Mutual Ecogeographic Range method, indicates that climate was cooler and slightly wetter climate than the present day climate of the Alcoi area. Applying the Habitat Weighting Method, we infer that the area surrounding El Salt was dominated by open dry regions, alternating with rocky areas with scarce scrubs and forest patches that would have developed under mesomediterranean conditions. These results are not entirely consistent with those obtained with other proxies (charcoal and small mammal assemblages) from the same site, which suggest slightly warmer and drier conditions. We hypothesise that these divergences may be partly related to the current wide distribution of reptiles and amphibians across Iberia. A key finding is that the extirpation of the Neanderthals in Iberia coincided with aridification.

Highlights

Palaeoecological and palaeoclimatic reconstructions are two of the primary topics in Quaternary studies, which are primarily concerned with the history of our species and own relatives (e. g. Cohen et al, 2009; deMenocal, 2011; Birks et al, 2015)
Multiple authors (i.e. Vargas and Real, 1997; Sillero et al, 2009) have found the existence of two major cho rotypes among the Iberian herpetofauna (Atlantic and Mediterranean), which are extremely coincident with the geoclimate and biogeography of the region
Our results indicate the dominance in the region of the meso mediterranean thermoclimatic belt in both Stratigraphic Unit (SU) Xb and SU V

Summary

Introduction

Palaeoecological and palaeoclimatic reconstructions are two of the primary topics in Quaternary studies, which are primarily concerned with the history of our species and own relatives (e. g. Cohen et al, 2009; deMenocal, 2011; Birks et al, 2015). Palaeoecological and palaeoclimatic reconstructions are two of the primary topics in Quaternary studies, which are primarily concerned with the history of our species and own relatives Numerous proxies have been used to perform palaeoclimatic and palaeoecological reconstructions (Bradley, 1999; Rose et al, 1999; d’Errico and Sanchez Goni, 2003; Evershed et al, 2007; Birks et al, 2010; Wolf et al, 2018, among others). The use of a natural system as a climate proxy must meet two requirements: it must contain a climatic signal and have a modern relative for comparison and calibration purposes (the uniformitarianism principle) (Bradley, 1999). According to Bradley (1999), the biological proxies are related to the presence of a particular taxon, the fossil

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