The Late Quaternary pollen sequence of Toll Cave, a palaeontological site with evidence of human activities in northeastern Spain

Abstract

Palynological investigations of Toll Cave, a carnivore and archaeological cave site in northeastern Spain, are presented. The inferred vegetation reveals the long-term permanence of mixed pine-oak forests through a long period of environmental changes within the interval MIS 4 to MIS 1, and probably before. A relatively high diversity of woody taxa is found, including conifers, mesophytic angiosperms, Mediterranean forest, and xerothermic scrub. The most outstanding findings include the abundance of Pinus, evergreen Quercus, and Juniperus; the continuous occurrences of deciduous Quercus, Acer, Castanea, Betula, Fraxinus, Buxus, Olea, Salix, and Erica, and the presence of Abies, Taxus, Carpinus betulus, Tilia, Populus, Celtis, Juglans, Ulmus, Calicotome, Cistus, Ephedra fragilis, Myrtus, Pistacia, Rhamnus and Viburnum. Together with the pollen record of the nearby Teixoneres Cave, this new data suggest the existence of woodland refugia during the coldest and most arid stages of the upper Pleistocene across this relatively high-latitude region within the Iberian Peninsula. This study also supports the occurrence of forest ecosystems within the Mediterranean-Eurosiberian ecotone of the Iberian Peninsula in the vicinity of Homo habitats, including Neanderthals.