Abstract
Although ongoing, excavations at the Valdavara-1 cave (Galicia, northwestern Spain) have already yielded a rich and highly diverse terrestrial small vertebrate assemblage. Among the findings, two precaudal vertebrae from the Holocene level (with a radiocarbon age of 4490 ± 40 years BP) are attributed to the golden-striped salamander ( Chioglossa lusitanica) and constitute the first fossil evidence for this species. Because of the poor intraspecific genetic diversity of living Spanish populations it has been proposed that they have a recent origin linked with a postglacial expansion from southern refuges. The palaeontological data presented in this paper thus show that the northernmost expansion of the species took place at least as early as the Chalcolithic period and permit the estimation of its dispersion speed within its potential distribution area.
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