RT Journal Article
T1 Morphological, demographic and genetic traces of Upper Palaeolithic human impact on limpet assemblages in North Iberia
A1 Turrero García, Pablo
A1 Muñoz Colmenero, Ana Marta
A1 Pola, I. G.
A1 Arbizu Senosiaín, Miguel
A1 García Vázquez, Eva
AB Human activities have an impact on extant biotic communities, and may have had just as important an impact in the past. We assess human impact on limpet assemblages during the Upper Palaeolithic in Asturias (north-west Spain). The intensely exploited genus Patella exhibited a marked size decrease and a change in species assemblage composition, substituting the larger species P. vulgata for the smaller P. depressa. The present Patella assemblages in the upper tidal level exhibit the same pattern as those of the Epipalaeolithic (approx. 12 000 to 6000 years before the present). Although climate change may have contributed to such species replacement, spatial differences between close areas with different densities of Palaeolithic human settlements indicate unequivocal human impact. Present Patella species sampled from the region exhibit genetic signatures of past bottlenecks in mitochondrial DNA, which also indicate recent demographic expansion, suggesting that old impacts have been sufficiently important to leave genetic traces in current populations.
PB Wiley
SN 0267-8179
YR 2012
FD 2012
LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/95169
UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/95169
LA eng
NO Turrero, P., et al. «Morphological, Demographic and Genetic Traces of Upper Palaeolithic Human Impact on Limpet Assemblages in North Iberia». Journal of Quaternary Science, vol. 27, n.o 3, abril de 2012, pp. 244-53. https://doi.org/10.1002/jqs.1537.
NO This study was supported by the Spanish project MICINN CGL2009-08279 and the Regional Project FICYT IB09-0023. P.T. holds a PCTI grant (reference BP08-077).
NO Eusko Jaurlaritza
NO Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (España)
DS Docta Complutense
RD 11 abr 2025