Biochronological data inferred from the Early Pleistocene small mammals of the Barranc de la Boella site (Tarragona, north‐eastern Spain)

Abstract

ABSTRACTIn 2007, remains of Mammuthus meridionalis and 334 lithic artefacts were recovered in level 2 of Barranc de la Boella. The presence of M. meridionalis allows us to assign an age older than 700 ka to this level, which represents one of the few sites of this age with palaeontological remains associated with lithic industry. It also enables us to shed light on questions pertaining to the chronology and the biogeography of the earliest European human settlements. In this paper, the small mammals from the Barranc de la Boella site are described for the first time, with special emphasis on the arvicolines. The presence of Victoriamys chalinei and Mimomys savini allows us to estimate the age of level 2. Level 2 of the Barranc de la Boella site ranges between the top of the Jaramillo subchron (0.99 Ma) and shortly after the Brunhes–Matuyama transition at 0.78 Ma, thus covering a time span of great importance for our knowledge of the earliest human occupations in Western Europe.