New Remains of a Primitive Badger from Cueva De
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Journal of Iberian Geology https://doi.org/10.1007/s41513-020-00127-y RESEARCH PAPER New remains of a primitive badger from Cueva de los Toriles (Carrizosa, Castilla‑La Mancha, Iberian Peninsula) suggest a new quaternary locality in the southern Iberian plateau Daniel García‑Martínez1,2,3 · Alberto Valenciano4,5 · Aitziber Suárez‑Bilbao6 · Carlos A. Palancar2 · Irene Megía García7 · Davinia Moreno1 · Isidoro Campaña1 · Pedro R. Moya‑Maleno3,8 Received: 18 September 2019 / Accepted: 7 May 2020 © Universidad Complutense de Madrid 2020 Abstract The Cueva de Los Toriles belongs to a karstic system found in the southern Iberian plateau. Construction works in the cave (not related to paleontological activities) have allowed for the recovery of fossil remains of macromammals, including two lower molars of a mustelid that are presented in this work. They can be attributed to the species Meles cf. thorali based on morphological and morphometric comparisons. This extinct mustelid is known mostly from Villafranchian deposits of France, Spain, and Greece spanning from the late Pliocene potentially, even reaching with some doubts the Early-Middle Pleistocene of France. Therefore, according to the presence of this badger in the cave, we could tentatively assume a chronological age ranging from the Late Pliocene to the Middle Pleistocene, chronologies that would be consistent with some lithic tools found in the cave. We highlight the importance of Cueva de Los Toriles for the Quaternary Paleontology of the southern Iberian plateau, one of the places from the Iberian Peninsula with a more limited fossil record from these chronologies. Keywords Quaternary · Meles · Mustelidae · Iberian Peninsula · Castilla-La Mancha Resumen La Cueva de los Toriles se encuentra en un sistema kárstico situado en la Submeseta sur de la Península Ibérica. A pesar de que actualmente no existe datación de los depósitos sedimentarios, algunos trabajos de acondicionamiento de la cueva (previos a las actividades paleontológicas) permitieron el hallazgo de restos fósiles de macromamíferos, entre los que se incluyen dos molares inferiores de un mustélido, principal foco de este trabajo. Estos molares pueden ser atribuidos a la especie Meles cf. thorali a través de comparaciones morfológicas y morfométricas. Este mustélido extinto se encuentra prin- cipalmente en depósitos Villafranquienses de Francia, España y Grecia entre el Plioceno tardío y el Pleistoceno temprano, llegando potencialmente, con algunas dudas, incluso al Pleistoceno Medio de Francia. Por lo tanto, de acuerdo con la pres- encia de esta especie de tejón en la cueva, podemos asumir tentativamente una edad cronológica que va desde el Plioceno Tardío hasta el Pleistoceno Medio, cronologías que serían coherentes con algunas piezas de insdustria lítica encontradas en la cueva. Destacamos la importancia de la Cueva de Los Toriles para la Paleontología Cuaternaria de la Meseta Ibérica meridional, uno de los lugares de la Península con registro fósiles más limitado de estas cronologías. Palabras Clave Cuaternario · Meles · Mustelidae · Península Ibérica · Castilla-La Mancha 1 Introduction The Pleistocene record of the Iberian Peninsula is very Daniel García-Martínez and Alberto Valenciano contributed rich. Jordá Pardo (2008) groups the Iberian Pleistocene equally to the manuscript. deposits according to their location in fve geomorphologi- * Daniel García-Martínez cal subunits: (1) the Cantabrian Mountains and the Pyre- [email protected] nees, (2) the Central System, (3) the Iberian Range, (4) the Extended author information available on the last page of the article Coastal-Catalan Range, and (5) the Baetic Ranges and the Vol.:(0123456789)1 3 Journal of Iberian Geology Guadix-Baza Basin. Important Pleistocene fossiliferous sites (to the south). Geologically, the Paleozoic (Ordovician) sub- in the Cantabrian Mountains and the Pyrenees, in terms of strates extend across the western area of the region except amount and quality of the fossils preserved, are Cova Eirós for small outcrops of Precambrian rocks (Fig. 2). The eastern (Grandal-D’Anglade and Romaní 1997), El Sidrón (Fortea area is composed of Mesozoic sedimentary rocks (García et al. 2003; Rosas et al. 2013; García-Martínez et al., 2017) del Cura et al. 2000; Montero 2003; González et al. 2004), or Lezetxiki (Baldeón 1993), among others. In the Central represented by large limestone and dolomite bedrocks settled System and the Iberian Range, examples of Pleistocene fos- on highly folded Paleozoic substrates (Jiménez and Chaparro sil sites include Pinilla del Valle (Baquedano et al. 2016), 1983; Montero 2003) (Fig. 2). This can give rise to karstic TAFESA (Sesé 2010), Jarama VI (Jordá Pardo 2007) or the environments such as the Ruidera lakes (Martínez Goytre worldwide-known Atapuerca (Aguirre and Lumley 1977; et al. 1988; González et al. 2004) or aquifers such as those Rosas et al. 2013; Bermúdez de Castro et al. 2011; Arsuaga of Las Tablas de Daimiel (García Rodríguez and Almagro et al. 2015). In the Coastal-Catalan Range, sites include Costa 2004). Finally, the northern area is characterized by Vallparadís Section (Madurell-Malapeira et al. 2010), Bar- Cenozoic sediments (Jiménez and Chaparro 1983) (Fig. 3). ranc de la Boella (Vallverdú et al. 2014), Abric Romaní Based on these geological and geographical features, the (Fernández-García 2018), Cova Negra (Richard et al. 2019), Pleistocene deposits that can be found in this region are (1) Cova de Bolomor (Arsuaga et al. 2012) and Incarcal-I (Ros- fuvial sediments in the western and northern areas, related Montoya et al. 2012). Finally, in the Baetic Ranges and the to the paleo-basins of the Guadiana and Guadalquivir and Guadix-Baza Basin, important fossil sites include Quibas (2) karstic inflling sediments in the eastern part related to site (Piñero et al. 2016, 2020), Cueva Victoria (Gibert et al. the Mesozoic karstic systems. Few fossiliferous sites have 2016), Sima de las Palomas (Walker 2008), Orce (Agustí been described in La Mancha, and those that have been et al. 2015) and Gibraltar (Fynlanson et al. 2008). studied have not been explored in depth. Noteworthy are However, the list mentioned above highlights the fact Las Higueruelas (Badiola et al. 2007), Bonete y Piedrab- that some area of the Iberian Peninsula, such as the south- uena (Torres and Mazo 1991), and Valverde-2 (Alberdi ern Iberian plateau (also known as stable Meseta or Meseta et al. 1984) in the Campo de Calatrava, with Pliocene chro- Central) has few relevant sites, and in the region of Castilla- nologies. Early Pleistocene fossil sites include Valverde-1 La Mancha (including Guadalajara, Ciudad Real, Cuenca, and Fuensanta del Júcar, with the presence of macromam- Toledo, and Albacete provinces) they are particularly scarce. mals such as Mammuthus meridionalis or Hippopotamus Several important factors contribute to this situation, such as antiquus, dated around 1.3–0.8 Ma (Aguirre 1989; Mazo the eminently agricultural use of the landscapes of the river 1999) and 1 Ma (Mazo et al. 1990), respectively. The El paleobasins that conforms most of this region, as well as the Provencio site is dated around 0.9 Ma and is coeval with focus of the regional academy in historical periods instead of Fuensanta del Júcar (Domínguez-Solera et al. 2020; Mazo pre-historical or paleontological periods (García-Martínez et al. 1990). There is no fossil evidence from the Middle- 2019). The presence of a potential previously unknown fos- Late Pleistocene in La Mancha. siliferous site in Castilla-La Mancha, Cueva de Los Toriles in the area called “La Mancha”, could shed light on this 1.2 The Cueva de los Toriles and its importance issue. in the southern Iberian plateau 1.1 Geographical and geological setting The Cueva de Los Toriles (Carrizosa, Ciudad Real, Campo de Montiel, Castilla-La Mancha, Central Iberian Penin- The area that is strictly called “La Mancha” is a not well- sula) (Fig. 1) is part of a large and still unexplored karstic delimited region located in the center east of the Castilla- system in Mesozoic (late Jurassic; Lias) bedrocks. It La Mancha autonomous community, with an area of about belongs to the Betico-Castellano foreland (Rincón et al. 30,000 km2 (Pérez and de la Peña 1986) that includes most of 2001) and may contain some pre-Holocene sedimentary Ciudad Real, as well as part of Cuenca, Toledo, and Albac- deposits (García-Martínez and Suárez-Bilbao 2018). Even ete (Madoz 1846). It is located in the southern Iberian pla- though the cave has not been properly excavated yet, con- teau (Fig. 1) and large plain terrains along the Guadiana and struction work in the cave (the removal of the natural sub- Guadalquivir basins typify its western and northern areas. strate of the cave access) led to the fortuitous discovery However, its eastern part and some other outcrops within the of a rich fossil assemblage (García-Martínez and Suárez- Campo de Montiel, are characterized by more rugged land- Bilbao 2018). The assemblage includes two mustelid teeth scapes. From a biogeographical point of view, the southern in excellent condition that may be important for taxonomic Iberian plateau is in a strategic position, since it connects assessment and provide new information on a possible the Central System (to the north) and the Iberian Range (to relative dating of the cave deposits. Even though the two the northeast) with the Sierra Morena and the Baetic Ranges fossils were found in reworked sediments (Fig. 4), they 1 3 Journal of Iberian Geology Fig. 1 The geographical location of the Cueva de Los Toriles in (c) Guadalajara province, (d) Toledo province, (e) Cuenca Province, Europe (top-left), Iberian Peninsula (top-centre) and in Castilla-La (f) Ciudad Real province, (g) Albacete province, (h) Campo de Mon- Mancha autonomous community (bottom-left), as well as a detail, in tiel (local term of a historical and administrative area) and (i) La Car- a color-map of the site position between the two closer populations.