Francisco J Ruiz-Sánchez

• PhD
• Associate Professor at University of Valencia

The Pliocene-Pleistocene transition in the Almenara region (eastern Spain) is investigated through the analysis of herpetofaunal assemblages from ACB-4 (latest Pliocene, MN16) and ACB-1 (earliest Pleistocene, MN17), serving as proxies for palaeoclimate and palaeoenvironmental reconstructions. Our study revealed the presence of new taxa not identifi...

The chronology of lower Miocene Iberian small mammal faunas is still poorly constrained given the scarcity of well dated sedimentary successions including small mammal fossil localities. Such scarcity has prevented also an accurate understanding of the response of European terrestrial ecosystem to global changes across the Miocene climate optimum (...

The chronology of lower Miocene Iberian small mammal faunas is still poorly constrained given the scarcity of well dated sedimentary successions including small mammal fossil localities. Such scarcity has prevented also an accurate understanding of the response of European terrestrial ecosystem to global changes across the Miocene Climate Optimum (...

El Abric del Pastor es un yacimiento del Pleistoceno Superior de notable importancia para el estudio del contexto climático de las poblaciones neandertales en la región del levante peninsular. A través del análisis de los micromamíferos fósiles de los niveles que componen el yacimiento se puede realizar una aproximación bastante precisa a las condi...

The Columbretes Islands (eastern Spain) comprise a volcanic archipelago 50 km off the eastern Spanish coast. Illa Grossa is the main island of the archipelago. After the settlement of humans during the mid-19th century, strong modifications in biodiversity took place, including the reduction of the non-flying vertebrate fauna to a single taxon, Pod...

Here we present the results of a study of the small mammal assemblage recovered from a now disappeared karstic fissure located in a quarry called ‘Pedrera del Corral d’en Bruach’. The site was located at 330 m a.s.l. in the Garraf Massif, ca. 20 km south of Barcelona. An archaeological rescue excavation was conducted in 2006 by the Grup de Recerca...

Modern microbialites in Argentina’s Puna (Central Andes) are considered a reliable tool for understanding the evolution of early life on our planet and developing strategies for detecting life on Mars. The morphological, structural and geochemical variations in these deposits, together with their distribution and architecture, are some of the most...

El Salt (Middle Palaeolithic; Alcoi, Spain) is a key site for understanding the disappearance of Neanderthals in the eastern Iberian Peninsula, a process that is observed along its stratigraphic sequence. To improve our understanding of the palaeoclimatic context in which this process took place, we applied the UDA-ODA discrimination technique to t...

Here we describe the fossil remains of Cainotherium aff. huerzeleri and Lagopsis penai from the Ribesalbes-Alcora Basin (Castelló, Spain). We also compare the relative abundance of cainotheriids vs. lagomorphs and discuss the possible direct interaction between both taxa, possibly indicating the competition between both families. The oldest localit...

Dmanisi (Georgia) is one of the oldest Early Paleolithic sites discovered out of Africa. In addition, it is the best site to understand the first Homo deme out of Africa and the first hominin occupation of Central to Western Eurasia. It has produced more than 40 hominin remains, including several very informative skulls, found in direct association...

Two species of the family Eomyidae are identified in the early Miocene localities of the Araia d'Al-cora outcrop (Ribesalbes-Alcora Basin, Iberian Peninsula): Ligerimys florancei and Ligerimys ellipticus. The first is rarer than the second, which is one of the most abundant mammals in the Ribesalbes-Alcora Basin assemblages. Due to its abundance, w...

The El Salt site (Alcoi, Alicante, Spain) is one of the latest Neanderthal sites in the south-eastern Iberian Peninsula. The disappearance of this human group is controversial and needs detailed studies from different research areas. Taphonomy is essential to establish how representative is a fossil assemblage of the past living organisms that prod...

Archaeological remains have highlighted the fact that the interglacial Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 11 was a threshold from the perspective of hominin evolution in Europe. After the MIS 12 glaciation, considered one of the major climate-driven crises experienced by hominins, the archaeological records show an increasing number of occupations, evidenc...

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....

The locality of El Salt (Alcoi, Spain) is a key site for understanding the extirpation of Neanderthals in the eastern part of Iberia. In this paper, we analyse an assemblage of amphibians and reptiles from Stratigraphic Unit V (45.2 ± 3.4 ka to 44.7 ± 3.4 ka), which corresponds to one of the last regional records of Neanderthals, to improve knowled...

La serie Courier Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg (Cfs) publica artículos de interés internacional en el ámbito de la geología y paleontología, con especial énfasis en la publicación de volúmenes especiales que resuman el conocimiento actual sobre alguna de las materias encuadradas en estas temáticas. El volumen 258 incluye parte de los trabajos pres...

El Salt is an important reference site for understanding the extinction of Neanderthal populations in the eastern Iberian Peninsula during MIS 3. In this paper, we describe the small mammal assemblage from Stratigraphic Unit V, the youngest unit with evidence of human presence, based on nearly 1300 specimens. A total of seven rodents (Microtus arva...

El Salt is an important reference site for understanding the extinction of Neanderthal populations in the eastern Iberian Peninsula during MIS 3. In this paper, we describe the small mammal assemblage from Stratigraphic Unit V, the youngest unit with evidence of human presence, based on nearly 1300 specimens. A total of seven rodents (Microtus arva...

We present the bat assemblage from the early Miocene (MN4, 16.9-15.95 MY) basin of Ribesalbes-Alcora, which has yielded the remains of ten chiropteran taxa. Bat assemblages are rarely recovered in the fluvio-lacustrine fossil record. A bat species described in this work, Cuvierimops penal-veri sp. nov., is a new form of a typically Oligocene free-t...

Materials from the localities of Araia d'Alcora in the Ribesalbes-Alcora Basin (Spain, early Miocene, Bio-zone C, MN4) have yielded an assemblage of erinaceids and metatherians, relatively rich for an Iberian site. The most common erinaceid is the gymnure Galerix symeonidisi Doukas, 1986, present in almost all of the studied sites. Other erinaceids...

There are few examples of small vertebrate’ works centred in the Holocene in the south-eastern Iberian Peninsula. In this sense, Units I to IV from El Salt site (Alcoi, Spain) has been traditionally ascribed to the Holocene. The microvertebrate assemblage (350 remains) recovered from the water-sieving of almost 100 kg is composed by seven rodent sp...

This paper presents a multiproxy palaeoenvironmental study from Abric del Pastor (Alcoy, Spain), a rock shelter which has yielded evidence for Middle Palaeolithic human occupation. The sedimentary sequence has been analysed for lipid biomarker n-alkane abundances (ACL, CPI), compound specific leaf wax δ2H and δ13C, and bulk organic geochemistry (TO...

Understanding past climate and the mechanisms of climate change remain major challenges in scientific research. The Mutual Ecogeographic Range (MER) method for climatic reconstruction uses the current geographical distribution of fossil assemblages to infer palaeoclimatic conditions. Current species distributions used in the MER method are usually...

Early Pleistocene terrestrial climate conditions in the Mediterranean region, especially between 1.3 and 1.7 Ma, are poorly understood. Here, the amphibian and reptile fossil record from 24 fissures (Cava Pirro) of the Pirro Nord karstic complex (southern Italy) is used to infer quantitative paleoclimatic and paleoenvironmental reconstructions. The...

The deficient management of the paleontological heritage through the environmental impact assessment procedures from the Valencian public administrations, linked mainly to the lack of competent technical means in the matter, results in an almost abandonment of it. On the contrary, the archaeological heritage has a series of perfectly structured too...

El Salt is emerging as a reference site for the study of the disappearance of Neanderthal populations in the Eastern Iberian Peninsula during MIS 3. The small vertebrate assemblage analysed in this work is framed within this general objective and comes from Stratigraphic Unit V, the most recent unit with human presence. Nearly 1300 small mammal rem...

The Miocene record of talpids and dimylids in south-western Europe is very scarce. In the present work, we study for the first time the talpids and complete the description of the dimylids, already started with a new species of the genus Plesiodimylus from the Ribesalbes–Alcora Basin (MN4, lower Aragonian, early Miocene) by Crespo et al. (2018). Th...

Tanque Loma B2: Cuando la Brea no pudo atrapar a la megafauna. Las trampas de brea constituyen uno de los sitios paleontológicos más importantes donde se pueden encontrar restos de megafauna fósiles.. Existen varios yacimientos de este tipo destacando, Rancho la Brea en Estados Unidos, Las Breas de San Felipe en Cuba, Orocual en Venezuela, Pitch L...

We present 45 new paleontological sites with fossil mammals, their faunal lists and the syntethic stratigraphic column from the Campisano ravine in the Araia/Mas de Antolino outcrop (Ribesalbes-Alcora Basin; Valencian Community, E Spain). The synthetic stratigraphic column of this basin is divided into five units, named A to E in Anadón (X Congr Na...

A representative outcrop of the Messinian stromatolites belonging to the Terminal Carbonate Complex unit, from the northern sector of the Bajo Segura basin ( Caja de Ahorros del Mediterraneo section, Sierra del Colmenar, SE Spain) has been studied. Here, we present a detailed analysis of the architecture, external morphology, and internal morpholog...

Sección Perspectivas (revista PH 94, junio 2018) Debate 11: El marco legal para la protección del patrimonio paleontológico. ¿Qué pasa en tu comunidad? Textos provisionales [pre-prints] Principio de precaución y agravios comparativos en la gestión de la arqueología y la paleontología por parte de las administraciones: el caso de la Comunidad Valenc...

En España, el patrimonio paleontológico puede ser protegido aplicando figuras de la legislación medioambiental o de la cultural, dependiendo si es considerado como perteneciente al patrimonio natural o histórico, respectivamente. La naturaleza intrínseca de los fósiles (origen, naturaleza y localización) permite englobarlos como un elemento de la g...

La identificación y valoración de impactos sobre el patrimonio paleontológico y arqueológico en los procedimientos de evaluación del impacto ambiental en la Comunidad Valenciana están fundamentados de forma muy diferente. Mientras los procedimientos aplicados al patrimonio arqueológico se fundamentan sobre criterios basados en el principio de preca...

The Messinian stromatolites belonging to the Terminal Carbonate Complex unit, from the northern sector of the Bajo Segura Basin (CAM section, Sierra del Colmenar, SE Spain) have been studied. To understand the direct relationship between the morphologies of the stromatolites and their deposition context in order to reconstruct the environmental con...

The Messinian stromatolites belonging to the Terminal Carbonate Complex unit, from the northern sector of the Bajo Segura Basin (CAM section, Sierra del Colmenar, SE Spain) have been studied. To understand the direct relationship between the morphologies of the stromatolites and their deposition context in order to reconstruct the environmental con...

The locality of El Salt (Middle Paleolithic, Alcoy, Spain) is mainly known by having one of the youngest Neanderthals records of the southeastern Iberian Peninsula. In this work, we have analysed the herpetofaunal fossils from the upper part of stratigraphic unit Xb, dated at 52.3 ± 4.6 ka (MIS 3). The faunal list is composed by three taxa of anura...

Nearly 250 small mammal remains from Unit Xb of El Salt Middle Palaeolithic site have been studied in order to reconstruct the palaeoecological conditions during a phase of Neanderthal occupation in this locality at 52.3 ± 4.6 ka. A total of 7rodents (Microtus arvalis, M. agrestis, M. (Terricola) duodecimcostatus, Microtus (Iberomys) cabrerae, Arvi...

The small mammal assemblages from Alto de Ballester 1 and 2 in the Rubielos de Mora basin represent a unique faunal assemblage from the late early Miocene (Ramblian, MN 3). Together, the assemblages yielded five species of rodents (Peridyromys murinus, P. aff. murinus, P. aquatilis, Pseudotheridomys aff. fejfari and cf. Steneofiber depereti), and n...

In this paper, we synthesize sedimentological, magnetostratigraphic and paleontological data from the continental vertebrate site of Puerto de la Cadena (Murcia, SE Spain), in order to clarify its age. The study site is located on the northern edge of the Carrascoy mountain range, in the upper part of the Cigarrón Unit. The end-Messinian discontinu...

In this paper, we have studied a new micromammal site from the Sierra del Colmenar section (Elche, SE Spain), named Sierra del Colmenar 1A (SCO-1A), representing the uppermost levels of Messinian age of the Bajo Segura Basin. The sedimentary context of this locality corresponds to a costal lagoon with marine influence. The fossil site has yielded r...

We report a new dimylid species, Plesiodimylus ilercavonicus sp. nov., from the Early Miocene locality of Mas d’Antolino B-5 (Ribesalbes-Alcora, Castelló, Spain). This new species of Plesiodimylus is an amblyodont form of the genus and exhibits some primitive characters. The phylogenetic and palaeoenvironmental implications of this southern occurre...

La Pedrera is a new palaeontological site located south of the province of Valencia, between the Betic and Iberian Ranges, in a cavity filled with sediments inside a tufa formation. Roughly 260 fossil remains, corresponding to 14 taxa, have been recovered and studied from Unit III. Six rodents (Microtus sp., M. sp. gr. M. (Terricola) duodecimcostat...

The presence of bat fossils in localities of fluvio-lacustrine origin is quite uncommon, and usually these remains are poorly preserved or not studied in detail. In the present work we study the bat association of the classical Late Miocene locality of Venta del Moro, which have yielded remains of five taxa of chiropterans. Two new bat species are...

The study of 13 micromammal localities in the southern section of the Gormaget ravine (Alcoi Basin, SE Spain) and another 4 localities in the northern section has allowed us to define four local biozones in the dawn of the Pliocene, possibly recording the Mio-Pliocene boundary. The great density of localities close to the Mio-Pliocene boundary has...

Fossil squirrels are relatively abundant in Aragonian and Ramblian assemblages, but very scarce in the Late Turolian and Ruscinian of the Iberian Peninsula. Until now, the locality of Venta del Moro has yielded over 4500 micromammal dental remains, but just nine of them are sciurids. In this assemblage, we have identified the taxa Pliopetaurista pl...

Murids are usually the dominant faunas of the late Miocene and early Pliocene micromammal assemblages. The present work deals with the murid faunas of the well-known late Miocene locality of Venta del Moro, comprising over 2700 molars ascribed to the taxa Apodemus gorafensis, Occitanomys alcalai, Paraethomys meini and Stephanomys dubari. This list...

The panda’s false thumb is an iconic structure, described as one of the most shocking cases of anatomical convergence, and has been studied in many essays about evolution. However, in a recent paper in which we evaluated this feature within the Carnivora, we concluded that the developed radial sesamoid could be taken as a plesiomorphic character fo...

El estudio de la biodiversidad del pasado en la península de Santa Elena se limita a varias contribuciones realizadas durante la primera mitad del siglo 20 y algunas publicaciones recientes (por ejemplo: Spillmann, 1931, 1938; Hoffstetter, 1952; Edmund 1965; Lindsey, 2010; Lindsey y López, 2014). La mayor parte de estos estudios se limitaron a peri...

Las rocas que afloran en la provincia de Santa Elena (región occidental de Ecuador) tienen edades comprendidas entre el Cretácico y el Pleistoceno (Hoffstetter, 1948, 1952). En los depósitos del Pleistoceno asociados a emanaciones bituminosas se conoce una rica y variada fauna de macromamíferos (Spillmann, 1931, 1938, 1941, 1942; Hoffstetter, 1948,...

In this work, we have studied the fossil rodent, insectivore and chiropteran faunas, of a new locality from the Almenara- Casablanca karstic complex, named ACB MB (Castellón, east Spain). We consider an early Ruscinian age for this site, close to the Miocene/Pliocene boundary, and infer warm and relatively humid conditions from the analysis of the...

En este trabajo se describe un nuevo yacimiento paleontológico con megafauna en la zona Atahualpa (Santa Elena, Ecuador), al que hemos denominado Atahualpa Isla. Además, se presenta el listado florístico y faunístico provisional a la espera de realizar una excavación sistemática del sitio y un estudio más detallado de los restos fósiles. Estas acti...

Este trabajo ha consistido en la obtención de las primeras muestras de tiburones de un nuevo nivel fosilífero en la zona Atahualpa: Quebrada Tiburón. Estas actividades se desarrollan en el marco del proyecto Prometeo, acción conjunta entre el SENESCYT y la Universidad Estatal Península de Santa Elena (UPSE). La Provincia de Santa Elena, en la regió...

En este trabajo se describe, por primera vez, un yacimiento del límite Oligoceno-Mioceno en Ecuador. Estas actividades se desarrollan en el marco del proyecto Prometeo, acción entre el SENESCYT y la Universidad Estatal Península de Santa Elena (UPSE). La Provincia de Santa Elena, en la región litoral ecuatoriana cuenta con uno de los registros pale...

In this work, we describe four new micromammal sites in the northern side of the Gormaget ravine, in the Alcoy Basin (Spain): AF-1'06, AF-1'07, AF-1A and AF-2. Based on the study of the faunal remains from these localities, we infer a latest Turolian-earliest Ruscinian age for AF-1'06 and AF-1A, and an earliest Ruscinian age for AF-1'07 and AF-2. T...

The localities of La Bullana 3 and La Bullana 2B (Valencia, E Spain) have yielded remains of Apodemus gorafensis, Paraethomys aff. abaigari, Stephanomys dubari, Apocricetus barrierei, Sciuridae indet. and Asoriculus cf. gibberodon the former, and Apodemus gorafensis, Paraethomys aff. abaigari, Stephanomys dubari, Apocricetus barrierei, Sciuridae in...

Late Miocene and Early Pliocene Cabriel, Alcoy and Granada basins of southeastern Spain. Eliomys yevesi sp. nov. is characterized by its relative small size, narrow lingual wall and common presence of two centrolophs in the upper molars, and well-developed centrolophids in the lower molars. The new species is the probable ancestor of E. intermedius...

This paper deals with the fossil rodent and insectivore faunas from the localities of the southern side of the Gormaget ravine (Alcoy Basin, Spain): Alcoi Barranc Sud (ABS-1, ABS-2, ABS-3, ABS-3A, ABS-7, ABS-8, ABS-9, ABS-10), and Alcoi Cristian (AC-0, AC-0B and AC-0C). We infer in this paper an Early Ruscinian age for these sites. Based on the ana...

Known as " Cerro de las Cabrillas " is located in the northwestern part of the province of Castellón, in the area of Portell de Morella. Due to the construction of the wind power station of Las Cabrillas, and over the base of the limestone escarpment is located a site with human populations of the recent Mesolithic and final Neolithic, so-called "...

LOWER—MIDDLE MIOCENE OSTRACOD ASSEMBLAGES OF LOMA NEGRA (BARDENAS REALES DE NAVARRA, EBRO BASIN): PALAEOENVIRONMENTAL EVOLUTION OF A LACUSTRINE SYSTEM. The palaeoenvironmental evolution of the Loma Negra section (Bardenas Reales de Navarra, Ebro Basin) during the lower—middle Miocene, is studied for the first time. The paleoenvironmental interpreta...

The species of the genus Apocricetus are considered to form the phyletic lineage A. aff. plinii (MN11)–A. plinii–A. alberti–A. barrierei–A. angustidens (MN16). Along this lineage, gradual morphological and biometrical changes occur, but not all the species are represented by rich populations. The assemblage of Apocricetus alberti from Venta del Mor...

Paleoecology of fossil rodents is frequently inferred from the dental pattern of the teeth, attributing the habitat conditions of extant rodents to fossil species with similar dental pattern. This technique is common practice and has been in use for several decades. A relatively new technique is based on the carbon and oxygen isotope composition of...