Research paper
Small vertebrates from a Holocene gravelly deposit at El Salt (Alcoi, Alicante)
ANA FAGOAGA
Departament de Botànica i Geologia, Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Universitat de València, Dr. Moliner, 50, 46100, Burjassot, Spain. ana.fagoaga@uv.es
Museu Valencià d’Història Natural & i\Biotaxa, l’Hort de Feliu-Alginet, P.O. Box 8460, E-46018, Valencia, Spain.
Corresponding author
RAFAEL MARQUINA-BLASCO
Departament de Botànica i Geologia, Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Universitat de València, Dr. Moliner, 50, 46100, Burjassot, Spain. rafael.marquina@uv.es
Museu Valencià d’Història Natural & i\Biotaxa, l’Hort de Feliu-Alginet, P.O. Box 8460, E-46018, Valencia, Spain.
DANIEL GRACIA-MONFERRER
Departament de Botànica i Geologia, Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Universitat de València, Dr. Moliner, 50, 46100, Burjassot, Spain. dani.gracios@gmail.com
ALBERTO MARTÍNEZ-ORTÍ
Museu Valencià d’Història Natural & i\Biotaxa, l’Hort de Feliu-Alginet, P.O. Box 8460, E-46018 Valencia Spain. amorti@uv.es
Departament of Parasitology. Faculty of Pharmacy. Universitat de València. Av Vicent Andrés Estellés s/n, E-46100, Burjassot, Spain
PALOMA VIDAL-MATUTANO
Departamento de Ciencias Históricas, Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Pérez del Toro 1, 35003 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain. paloma.vidal@ulpgc.es
LAURA SÁNCHEZ-LÓPEZ
Departament de Botànica i Geologia, Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Universitat de València, Dr. Moliner, 50, 46100, Burjassot, Spain. sanlolau@alumni.uv.es
CAROLINA MALLOL
Departamento de Geografía e Historia. Facultad de Humanidades, Universidad de La Laguna. Campus Guajara, 38205, S/C de Tenerife, Spain. cmallol@ull.edu.es
CRISTO M. HERNÁNDEZ
Departamento de Geografía e Historia. Facultad de Humanidades, Universidad de La Laguna. Campus Guajara, 38205, S/C de Tenerife, Spain. chergomw@gmail.com
Facultad de Educación. Departamento de Didácticas Específicas. Universidad de La Laguna, 38205, La Laguna, Spain.
BERTILA GALVÁN
Departamento de Geografía e Historia. Facultad de Humanidades, Universidad de La Laguna. Campus Guajara, 38205, S/C de Tenerife, Spain. bgalvan@ull.es
SALVADOR BAILON
Histoire naturelle de l´Homme préhistorique, UMR 7194, Sorbonne Universités, MNHN, CNRS, 1 rue René Panhard, F-75013, Paris, France. salvador.bailon@mnhn.fr
Archéozoologie, Archéobotanique: sociétés, pratiques, environments, UMR 7209, Sorbonne Université, MNHN, CNRS 55 rue Buffon, CP 55, F-75005, Paris, France
FRANCISCO J. RUIZ-SÁNCHEZ
Departament de Botànica i Geologia, Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Universitat de València, Dr. Moliner, 50, 46100, Burjassot, Spain. francisco.ruiz@uv.es
Museu Valencià d’Història Natural & i\Biotaxa, l’Hort de Feliu-Alginet, P.O. Box 8460, E-46018 Valencia, Spain.
INCYT-UPSE, Universidad Estatal Península de Santa Elena, 7047, Santa Elena, Ecuador.
CÉSAR LAPLANA
Museo Arqueológico Regional de la Comunidad de Madrid, Pza. Bernardas s/n, 28801 Alcalá de Henares, Spain. cesar.laplana@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
The small-vertebrates’ assemblage recovered comes from Units I to IV from El Salt site (Alcoi, Spain). The sample is composed by nearly 310 remains, and includes one toad (Epidalea calamita), two lizards (Lacertidae indet. and Chalcides cf. bedriagai), two snakes (Coronella cf. girondica and cf. Coronella sp.), two insectivores (Crocidura sp. and Sorex sp.), one lagomorph (Oryctolagus cuniculus) and seven rodent taxa (Arvicola sapidus, Microtus sp., M. arvalis, M. cabrerae, M. duodecimcostatus, Apodemus sylvaticus and Eliomys quercinus). All the species described in the present work are consistent with a Late Pleistocene-Holocene chronology. The presence of M. cabrerae (absent in the Middle Pleistocene) and M. duodecimcostatus (absent in the Mediterranean until the Late Pleistocene) seem to confirm this age. The presence of Neolithic pottery and M. arvalis in the same deposit is inconsistent from a biochronically point of view since this species was extirpated from this region at the end of the Late Pleistocene. Several taphonomic alterations related to transport within the small mammal remains have been identified. Further taphonomical and geoarchaeological work is needed to clarify the provenience of the studied faunal assemblages, which, given the high energy, erosional morphology and lithology of the sedimentary deposit, could have been reworked in a more recent time period.
Key words: Iberian Peninsula, small mammals, herpetofauna, Biochronology, Quaternary.
How to cite: Fagoaga, A., Marquina-Blasco, R., Gracia-Monferrer, D., Martínez-Ortí, A., Vidal-Matutano, P., Sánchez López, L., Mallol, C., Hernández, C.M., Galván, B., Bailon, S., Ruiz-Sánchez, F.J. & Laplana, C. 2021. Small vertebrates from a Holocene gravelly deposit at El Salt (Alcoi, Alicante). Spanish Journal of Palaeontology, 36 (1), 51–76.
Received 1 December 2019, Accepted 7 October 2020, Published online: 29 March 2021
https://doi.org/10.7203/sjp.36.1.20307
