Rodents from Botardo-D and the Miocene-Pliocene transition in the Guadix-Baza Basin (Granada, Spain)
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Rodents from Botardo-D and the Miocene-Pliocene transition in the Guadix-Baza Basin (Granada, Spain) Pedro Piñero 1,2,3
&
Jordi Agustí 1,2,4
Received: 18 February 2019 / Revised: 6 June 2019 / Accepted: 28 November 2019 # Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2019
Abstract The rich small-mammal record from the Guadix-Baza Basin (Granada, southern Spain) provides a rather continuous biostratigraphic sequence from the late Miocene to the middle Pleistocene. However, the earliest Pliocene is not so well represented due to the scarcity of levels from this time. In this paper, a complete taxonomic study of the rodent fauna from Botardo-D is presented, providing a more complete information on this poorly known time interval. Representatives of the genera Stephanomys, Paraethomys, Apodemus, Castillomys, Debruijnimys and Apocricetus have been identified. The association indicates an intermediate biostratigraphic position between the levels of Negratín-1 (late Turolian, MN13) and Baza-1 (early Ruscinian, MN14), being now one of the oldest Pliocene sites in the Guadix-Baza Basin. Thereby, Botardo-D enhances our knowledge on the evolution of the rodent community recorded in this basin from the late Miocene to the early Pliocene. A qualitative palaeoecological interpretation suggests the dominance of open grasslands under relatively warm and dry climate conditions in the Guadix-Baza Basin during the deposition of Botardo-D. A tendency towards an increase in humidity from the Messinian Salinity Crisis (latest Miocene) to the Zanclean (early Pliocene) could be shown for southern Iberian Peninsula, supporting previous results. Keywords Guadix-Baza Basin . Early Pliocene . Early Ruscinian . Rodentia . Biostratigraphy . Palaeoecology
Introduction One of the best continental successions from the late Miocene to the middle Pleistocene in western Europe is recorded in the Guadix-Baza Basin (southern Spain). Several localities with micromammal remains provide a rather continuous biostratigraphic sequence in this basin. It offers the opportunity to analyse the faunal changes from the Messinian Salinity
* Pedro Piñero [email protected] 1
IPHES, Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social, Zona Educacional 4-Campus Sescelades URV (Edifici W3), 43007 Tarragona, Spain
2
Àrea de Prehistòria, Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV), Avinguda de Catalunya 35, 43002 Tarragona, Spain
3
Sección Mastozoología, Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo de La Plata (UNLP), CONICET, Paseo del Bosque s/n, 1900 La Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina
4
ICREA, Pg. Lluís Companys 23, 08010 Barcelona, Spain
Crisis to the early Pliocene. Among micromammals, rodents are especially useful for the identification of biochronological units in the Neogene and Quaternary continental deposits (Fahlbusch 1991; Minwer-Barakat et al. 2012a; Agustí et al. 2015; Piñero et al. 2017a). Therefore, careful documentation of rodent fossils is indispensable to carry out reliable bios
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