Research paper
Spaces and species: The Rodrigo Botet Collection (Valencia, Spain) and the palaeoecological relationships of early Homo sapiens during their dispersal in the southern cone of South America
KARINA V. CHICHKOYAN
Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Tarragona, Spain. karinavch@gmail.com
Corresponding author
MARGARITA BELINCHÓN
Museo de Ciencias Naturales de Valencia, Spain. General Elio s/n, 46010, Valencia, Spain. museociencias@valencia.es
JOSÉ L. LANATA
Instituto de investigaciones de Diversidad Cultural y Procesos de Cambio, CONICET. Mitre 630, 8400, Bariloche, Argentina. jllanata@conicet.gov.ar
BIENVENIDO MARTÍNEZ-NAVARRO
Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Tarragona, Spain. ICREA, Barcelona, Spain. bienvenido.martinez@icrea.cat
ABSTRACT
In this paper we present the taphonomic analysis of the Rodrigo Botet Collection, an assembly of fossil bones excavated from the Region of the Pampas (Argentina) which display evidence of having been subject to anthropic action. This collection of South America mammals is housed at the Natural Science Museum of Valencia (Spain), and is the most important of this type in Europa. In order to better comprehend the evidence found in this collection a palaeoecological framework was applied. This framework was linked to the relations established between Homo sapiens and the native megafauna, which may have implied new forms of niche construction or colonization in South America spaces. The distribution of the different species over the landscape, the general ecological characteristics of these mammals, and the presence of possible competitors were taken into account during the research. In this context we emphasise that human beings behaved as an invasive species in this continent during the first peopling of America. Special attention is also placed on comparing different early human dispersal events in different scenarios. America and Europe are exemplary case studies for making further discoveries on the several anthropic impacts that our species has exerted in different times and spaces.
Keywords: America peopling, megafauna, Pleistocene-Holocene, Transition, Pampean Region, Argentina.
How to cite: Chichkoyan, K.V., Belinchón, M., Lanata, J.L. & Martínez-Navarro, B. 2015. Spaces and species: The Rodrigo Botet Collection (Valencia, Spain) and the paleocological relationships of early Homo sapiens during their dispersal in the southern cone of South America. Spanish Journal of Paleontology, 30 (1), 15-32.
Received 29 January 2014, Accepted 01 July 2014, Published 30 June 2015
https://doi.org/10.7203/sjp.30.1.17199
