M. Patrocinio Espigares- PhD
- Associate Professor at University of Malaga
M. Patrocinio Espigares
- PhD
- Associate Professor at University of Malaga
About
94
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Introduction
M. Patrocinio Espigares currently works at the Departamento de Ecología y Geología, University of Malaga. M. does research in Taphonomy, Paleobiology and Geology. Their current project is 'Paleoecology of the early Pleistocene of Orce'.
Skills and Expertise
Current institution
Publications
Publications (94)
On 2015, after the direct study of the most important Late Villafranchian fossil collections of Europe and Western Asia, including Orce (Spain), Pirro Nord and Upper Valdarno (Italy), Appollonia (Greece), Dmanisi (Georgia) and ‘Ubeidiya (Israel), among others, our team proposed the hypothesis that suids disappeared from Europe during the time span...
The late Early Pleistocene archaeological site of Fuente Nueva-3 (FN3), which lies in the Guadix-Baza Depression (SE Spain) and is dated to ~ 1.4 Ma, contributes some of the oldest evidence of hominin presence in Western Europe, including a huge tool assemblage of Oldowan tradition, manuports (i.e., unmodified stones used as percussion tools) and a...
The Lower Pliocene to upper Middle Pleistocene continental sedimentary infillings of the Baza Basin (Guadix-Baza Depression, SE Spain) are worldwide unique by their high stratigraphic completeness and exceptional preservation of their fossil record of terrestrial vertebrates. These sediments were deposited in fluvio-lacustrine environments and pres...
The Early Pleistocene sites of Orce in southeastern Spain, including Fuente Nueva-3 (FN3), Barranco León (BL) and Venta Micena (VM), provide important insights into the earliest hominin populations and Late Villafranchian large mammal communities. Dated to approximately 1.4 million years ago, FN3 and BL preserve abundant Oldowan tools, cut marks an...
The late Early Pleistocene archaeological site of Fuente Nueva-3 (FN3), which lies in the Guadix-Baza Depression (SE Spain) and is dated to ~ 1.4 Ma, contributes some of the oldest evidence of hominin presence in Western Europe, including a huge tool assemblage of Oldowan tradition, manuports (i.e., unmodified stones used as percussion tools) and a...
The Early Pliocene to late Middle Pleistocene continental sedimentary infillings of the Baza Basin (Guadix-Baza Depression, SE Spain) are worldwide unique by their high stratigraphic completeness and exceptional preservation of their fossil record of terrestrial vertebrates. These sediments were deposited in fluvio-lacustrine environments and prese...
The late Early Pleistocene archaeological site of Fuente Nueva-3 (FN3), which lies in the Guadix-Baza Depression (SE Spain) and is dated to ~ 1.4 Ma, contributes some of the oldest evidence of hominin presence in Western Europe, including a huge tool assemblage of Oldowan tradition, manuports (i.e., unmodified stones used as percussion tools) and a...
The Early Pleistocene archeological site of Fuente Nueva-3 (FN3) preserves some of the oldest evidence of hominin presence in Western Europe, including a huge assemblage of Oldowan tools and evidence of butchering and marrow processing of large mammal bones. Moreover, there is also evidence of the regular presence of carnivores at the site, includi...
The late Early Pleistocene archaeological site of Fuente Nueva 3 (Orce, Guadix-Baza Depression, SE Spain), dated to ~1.4 Ma, provides evidence on the subsistence strategies of the first hominin population that dispersed in Western Europe. The site preserves Oldowan tool assemblages associated with abundant remains of large mammals. A small proporti...
The chronology and environmental context of the first hominin dispersal in Europe have been subject to debate and controversy. The oldest settlements in Eurasia (e.g., Dmanisi, ∼1.8 Ma) suggest a scenario in which the Caucasus and southern Asia were occupied ∼0.4 Ma before the first peopling of Europe. Barranco León (BL) and Fuente Nueva 3 (FN3), t...
Venta Micena, an Early Pleistocene site of the Baza Basin (SE Spain), preserves a rich and diverse assemblage of large mammals. VM3, the main excavation quarry of the site, has been interpreted as a den of the giant hyaena Pachycrocuta brevirostris in the plain that surrounded the Baza palaeolake. Taphonomic analysis of VM3 has shown that the hyaen...
Venta Micena, an Early Pleistocene site of the Baza Basin (SE Spain), preserves a rich and diverse assemblage of large mammals. VM3, the main excavation quarry of the site, has been interpreted as a den of the giant hyaena Pachycrocuta brevirostris in the plain that surrounded the Baza palaeolake. Taphonomic analysis of VM3 has shown that the hyaen...
Venta Micena, an Early Pleistocene site of the Baza Basin (SE Spain), preserves a rich and diverse assemblage of large mammals. VM3, the main excavation quarry of the site, has been interpreted as a den of the giant hyaena Pachycrocuta brevirostris in the plain that surrounded the Baza palaeolake. Taphonomic analysis of VM3 has shown that the hyaen...
The site of Venta Micena (Orce, Spain), c. 1.6 Ma, preserves one the best paleontological records of the early Pleistocene large mammals fauna in Europe. Here we describe the specimens of the genus Canis Linnaeus, 1758 in the context of the late Villafranchian and Epivillafranchian fossil dogs from Eurasia. Anatomical and metric data suggest that t...
two archaeo-palaeontological lower Pleistocene sites of orce (Baza Basin, Se Spain), Fuente nueva 3 (1.3 Ma) and Barranco león (1.4 Ma), preserve some of the earliest evidence of human presence in the euro-pean continent. During the 2013 field season, a small Lyncodontini mustelid mandible was found at Fuente Nueva-3. This finding was accompanied b...
Cleaning works in the cave of Las Palomas in Teba (Málaga, Spain), developed by the Guadalteba Consortium, have provided a number of lithic tools and knapping products that may be ascribed to the Mode III technotypological tradition as well as remains of a number of large mammal species typical of MiddleeLate Pleistocene times. Topographic measurem...
Ancient evidence of human presence in Europe is recorded in several Early Pleistocene archaeopalaeontological sites from Spain, France and Italy. This is the case of Barranco León (BL) and Fuente Nueva-3 (FN-3), two localities placed near the town of Orce (depression of Baza and Guadix, SE Spain) and dated to ~1.4 Ma. At these sites, huge assemblag...
The site of Huéscar-1 (Baza basin, Granada, Spain) yielded an interesting paleontological record close in age to the Early-Middle Pleistocene boundary. In 2003 two lithic artifacts were found, confirming the human presence at this site. The faunal assemblage preserves few marsh turtle remains, a number of avian species, and small and large mammals,...
Se lleva a cabo una revisión de los conceptos, procedimientos y normativa legal vigente utilizados en la definición, catalogación, conservación y puesta en valor del patrimonio geológico y paleontológico. Así mismo, se analizan de modo específico los condicionantes geográficos y geológicos ligados a los lugares de interés paleontológico definidos h...
RESUMEN España es el país con mayor número de yacimientos bien conservados, cantidad y calidad de fósiles de todo el continente europeo. Aquí se describe el patrimonio paleobiológico correspondiente al Plio-Pleistoceno (últimos 5,3 millones de años) registrado en los principales yacimientos con presencia de fósiles de grandes mamíferos de la Peníns...
El yacimiento de Baza-1 se localiza en la cuenca de Baza (Granada), pudiéndose considerar la mejor localidad de edad Rusciniense de la Península Ibérica. En este yacimiento se han realizado excavaciones sistemáticas durante los años 2001, 2002, 2015, 2016, 2017 y 2018 en una zona de unos 25 m2 aproximadamente, de la que se han extraído más de 1000...
Comment les vestiges matériels du passé se sont-ils constitués et conservés au cours du temps, durant des centaines, des milliers, ou des millions d’années? C’est dans cette perspective que se placent les études en taphonomie, largement pluri- et inter-disciplinaires, intégrant de multiples approches scientifiques relevant des sciences de la Terre,...
La primera dispersión humana en Europa occidental: ¿una colonización demorada? La cronología de la dispersión humana inicial hacia Eurasia desde el continente africano y las edades de los primeros asentamientos europeos se han visto sometidas a intenso debate durante las últimas décadas. Así, la fecha más antigua confirmada de presencia humana fuer...
The chronology of the first human dispersal out of Africa and the ecological role of the genus Homo in Europe as a scavenger or an active hunter during the late Early Pleistocene are two of the paleoanthropological topics most hotly debated during the last decades. The earliest human occurrences in Western Europe are recorded in the Iberian Peninsu...
The Guadix–Baza depression (southeastern Spain) preserves one of the best continental Plio-Pleistocene records of the European continent. The new site, Baza-1, is the first Ruscinian locality with fauna of large vertebrates known in the basin. During the summer seasons of 2001, 2002, 2015 and 2016, systematic excavations were undertaken in the site...
With an age of ~1.6e1.5 Ma, the Early Pleistocene site of Venta Micena (Orce, Baza Basin, SE Spain) has provided the large mammals assemblage of Late Villafranchian age with higher preservational completeness in Western Europe and offers a unique opportunity to analyze the food webs of the mammalian paleocommunity before the first human arrival in...
Dental morphology and tooth microwear studies are used as analytical proxies for understanding the taxonomy, biochronology, paleobiology and ecogeographical context of Early Pleistocene Ursus species (U. etruscus) and other large carnivore taxa (Hyaenidae and Canidae) preserved in the Early Pleistocene (Calabrian) sites from Orce (Guadix-Baza basin...
The paleontological sites of Barranco León-D and Fuente Nueva-3 (Baza Basin, SE Spain) provide the oldest evidence (~1.4 Ma) on human presence in Western Europe during Early Pleistocene times. In this paper we analyze the demographic inferences derived from: (1) the estimates of population density obtained for the species of secondary consumers pre...
With an age of ~1.4 Ma, the Early Pleistocene sites of Barranco León-D and Fuente Nueva-3 (Baza Basin, SE
Spain) provide the oldest evidence on human presence in Western Europe. Here we use a mathematical approach based on Leslie matrices to quantify, for the large mammal species preserved at these sites, the biomass of primary consumers available,...
Fuente Nueva 1 is a paleontological site known since the 1980's, but few excavations have taken place in this locality during the time elapsed from its discovery. The last excavation season, in the summer of 2015, has unearthed more than 250 bone remains of large mammals. It should be notedthe appearance of more than 30 horn cores, mostly complete,...
Suids are found in Europe before and during the Olduvai magnetostratigraphic subchron, including the
Fonelas P-1 site in the Guadix Basin (Andalusia, Southern Spain, ~2.0 Ma), in which the remains have
been ascribed to Potamochoerus magnus, and many other localities that record the presence of Sus strozzii
(e.g., Saint Vallier and Senèze in France)...
Los hipopótamos se encuentran representados hoy día por dos especies afri-canas, Hippopotamus amphibius, el hipopótamo común, de vida semiacuática, y Choeropsis liberiensis, el hipopótamo pigmeo, de hábitos más terrestres (Boisserie, 2005). Los hipopótamos comunes se desenvuelven en zonas de aguas tranquilas y someras, que abandonan durante la noch...
Lozano-Fernández et al. (Lozano-Fernández I, Blain HA, López-García JM, Agustí J. 2014. Biochronology of the first hominid remains in Europe using the vole Mimomys savini: Fuente Nueva 3 and Barranco León D, Guadix-Baza Basin, south-eastern Spain. Hist Biol: Int J Paleobiol. doi:10.1080/08912963.2014.920015) recently published age estimates for two...
The Pleistocene of the Iberian Peninsula is currently a focus of intense paleontological, archaeological and geological research. To a large
extent, these inquiries are intended to decipher the ecological factors that might have conditioned early Homo dispersals into the European
continent during the late Early Pleistocene. In this respect, the res...
Here we describe the new, rich lacustrine paleontological and archeological site of Wadi Sarrat (Le Kef, northeastern Tunisia), dated to the beginning of the Middle Pleistocene, ∼0.7 Ma, by a combination of paleomagnetism and biochronology. This locality preserves the earliest record of auroch, Bos primigenius, the ancestor of the worldwide extant...
The assemblages of large bovids from the European Late Villafranchian are dominated by the presence of the genus Bison, a descendant of the Early-Middle Villafranchian forms of Leptobos. Chronologically, the oldest record of this genus at the gates of Europe is at Dmanisi, Georgia (1.77 Ma), where it was firstly named Dmanisibos. It is recorded unt...
Homo and Pachycrocuta were the two major agents responsible for modifying and accumulating bones during early Pleistocene times in Europe. However, although an intense competition between hominins and hyenas in the access to scavengeable resources has long been proposed, currently there is no conclusive evidence for corroborating or ruling out this...
The late Early Pleistocene (Late Villafranchian) paleontological sites of Incarcal-I (Crespià, Catalonia, Spain) and Venta Micena (Orce, Andalusia, Spain), which are approximately 800 km apart, preserve a rich fossil record of proboscideans, corresponding to the species Mammuthus meridionalis. The remains from Incarcal-I have been described as an e...
Paleontological and molecular data suggest that the divergence of the European and Asian badgers (Meles meles and Meles leucurus, respectively) from their ancestor Meles thorali might have taken place in the Middle to Late Villafranchian boundary (ca. 1.8Ma). However, the available record of Late Villafrachian European badgers is scanty and poorly...
Cleaning works in the cave of Las Palomas in Teba (Málaga, Spain), developed by the Guadalteba Consortium, have provided a number of lithic tools and knapping products that may be ascribed to the Mode III technotypological tradition as well as remains of a number of large mammal species typical of Middle–Late Pleistocene times. Topographic measurem...
The giant hyena Pachycrocuta brevirostris was the largest bone-cracking carnivore that ever existed. With the mass of a lioness, it had massive limbs with shortened distal bones and a heavy, powerfully built mandible with robust, well-developed premolars. All these features reflect its adaptation for dismembering ungulate carcasses, transporting la...
a b s t r a c t The assemblages of large bovids from the European Late Villafranchian are dominated by the presence of the genus Bison, a descendant of the Early-Middle Villafranchian forms of Leptobos. Chronologically, the oldest record of this genus at the gates of Europe is at Dmanisi, Georgia (1.77 Ma), where it was firstly named Dmanisibos. It...
In this paper we review the large mammals collections from the localities of Fuente Nueva-3 and Barranco León-5, increasing the data available as possible as to include the fossil specimens of the last archaeological excavations. However, it is worth noting that we could not study the whole sample because some fossils are under restoration. The num...
The archaeological localities of Barranco León and Fuente Nueva3 in Orce, Grenade, in actuality have the oldest lithic artifacts in Europe; they are the oldest evidence of human occupation in the east of Europe. When compared the results from faunal analysis and magnetostratigraphical study, notably through the presence of Allophaiomys lavocati all...
El presente estudio contribuye a mejorar el conocimiento de las asociaciones de mamíferos de las yacimientos paleontológicos y arqueológicos de Fuente Nueva-3 y de Barranco León-5 (Orce, Granada), situados en el Pleistoceno inferior y datados aproximadamente en 1.3+0.1 Ma, ampliando sus listas faunísticas especialmente en lo referente al registro d...
The Early Pleistocene locality at Venta Micena (Orce, Guadix-Baza basin, province of Granada, Spain) has provided four fossil remains – skull fragment VM-0, and long bone diaphyses VM-1960, VM-3691, and VM-12000 – which have been tentatively attributed to the hominids. Although several methodologies have been used to ascertain the human affinities...
Tesis Univ. Granada. Departamento de Estratigrafía y Paleontología. Leída el 23 de abril de 2010
