RT Journal Article
T1 Déjà vu: on the use of meat resources by sabretooth cats, hominins, and hyaenas in the Early Pleistocene site of Fuente Nueva 3 (Guadix-Baza Depression, SE Spain)
A1 Palmqvist, Paul
A1 Rodríguez Gómez, Guillermo
A1 Martínez Navarro, Bienvenido
A1 Espigares, M. Patrocinio
A1 Figueirido, Borja
A1 Ros Montoya, Sergio
A1 Guerra-Merchán, A.
A1 Granados, Alejandro
A1 García Aguilar, J.M.
A1 Pérez Claros, Juan A.
AB 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 proportion of these remains show cut marks and percussion marks resulting from defleshing and bone fracturing, and a small proportion of bones also show tooth marks. Previous taphonomic studies of FN3 suggested that the hominins had secondary access to the prey leftovers abandoned by sabretooth cats and other primary predators. However, a recent analysis by Yravedra et al. (2021) of the frequency of anthropogenic marks and tooth marks has concluded that the hominins had primary access to the carcasses of a wide variety of ungulate prey, even though the frequency of evisceration marks is strikingly low. In this rebuttal, we analyse the patterns of bone preservation in FN3, which show that the exploitation of bone marrow by the hominins after hammerstone breakage was a usual activity at the site. Our study also reviews the evidence available on the lesser abilities of sabretooth cats for carcass processing compared to pantherine felids. This reinforces the hypothesis that primary predators provided the hominins the opportunity to scavenge sizeable chunks of meat and bone marrow of their prey carcasses before the arrival of hyaenas. Finally, we also provide new inferences on resource availability and competition intensity among the members of the carnivore guild in FN3, which reinforce our interpretation that a secondary access by the Oldowan hominins to the prey leftovers of sabretooth cats was an optimal foraging strategy in the Guadix-Baza Depression.
PB Springer
SN 1866-9557, ESSN: 1866-9565
YR 2023
FD 2023
LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/72925
UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/72925
LA eng
NO Universidad Málaga/CBUA
NO Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades
NO Junta de Andalucía
NO Generalitat de Catalunya
DS Docta Complutense
RD 9 abr 2025