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- Title
New dating of the Matalascañas footprints provides new evidence of the Middle Pleistocene (MIS 9-8) hominin paleoecology in southern Europe.
- Authors
Mayoral, Eduardo; Duveau, Jérémy; Santos, Ana; Ramírez, Antonio Rodríguez; Morales, Juan A.; Díaz-Delgado, Ricardo; Rivera-Silva, Jorge; Gómez-Olivencia, Asier; Díaz-Martínez, Ignacio
- Abstract
Hominin footprints were recently discovered at Matalascañas (Huelva; South of Iberian Peninsula). They were dated thanks to a previous study in deposits of the Asperillo cliff to 106 ± 19 ka, Upper Pleistocene, making Neandertals the most likely track-makers. In this paper, we report new Optically Stimulated Luminescence dating that places the hominin footprints surface in the range of 295.8 ± 17 ka (MIS 9-MIS 8 transition, Middle Pleistocene). This new age implies that the possible track-makers are individuals more likely from the Neandertal evolutionary lineage. Regardless of the taxon attributed to the Matalascañas footprints, they supplement the existing partial fossil record for the European Middle Pleistocene Hominins being notably the first palaeoanthropological evidence (hominin skeleton or footprints) from the MIS 9 and MIS 8 transition discovered in the Iberian Peninsula, a moment of climatic evolution from warm to cool. Thus, the Matalascañas footprints represent a crucial record for understanding human occupations in Europe in the Pleistocene.
- Subjects
IBERIAN Peninsula; HUELVA (Spain); PALEOECOLOGY; FOSSIL hominids; OPTICALLY stimulated luminescence dating; PLEISTOCENE Epoch
- Publication
Scientific Reports, 2022, Vol 12, Issue 1, p1
- ISSN
2045-2322
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1038/s41598-022-22524-2