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oai:docta.ucm.es:20.500.14352/185492024-07-24T16:31:35Zcom_20.500.14352_14col_20.500.14352_15
Docta Complutense author Menéndez González, Iris author Blanco, Fernando author Domingo, Laura author Hernández Fernández, Manuel author Domingo Martínez, María Soledad author García Yelo, Blanca A. author Gómez Cano, Ana R. author Cantalapiedra, Juan L. 2023-06-17T22:28:53Z 2023-06-17T22:28:53Z 2017-10-26 1932-6203 10.1371/journal.pone.0186762 https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/18549 http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0186762 https://www.plos.org/https://www.naturalsciences.be/ We developed new quantitative palaeoclimatic inference models based on the body-size structure of mammal faunas from the Old World tropics and applied them to the Somosaguas fossil site (middle Miocene, central Iberian Peninsula). Twenty-six mammal species have been described at this site, including proboscideans, ungulates, carnivores, insectivores, lagomorphs and rodents. Our analyses were based on multivariate and bivariate regression models correlating climatic data and body-size structure of 63 modern mammal assemblages from Sub-Saharan Africa and the Indian subcontinent. The results showed an average temperature of the coldest month higher than 26ÊC for the Somosaguas fossil site, a mean annual thermal amplitude around 10ÊC, a drought length of 10 months, and an annual total precipitation greater than 200 mm per year, which are climate conditions typical of an ecotonal zone between the savanna and desert biomes. These results are congruent with the aridity peaks described over the middle Aragonian of Spain and particularly in the local biozone E, which includes Somosaguas. The aridity increase detected in this biozone is associated with the Middle Miocene Global Cooling Event. The environment of Somosaguas around 14 Ma was similar to the current environment in the Sahel region of North Africa, the Horn of Africa, the boundary area between the Kalahari and the Namib in Southern Africa, south-central Arabia, or eastern Pakistan and northwestern India. The distribution of modern vegetation in these regions follows a complex mosaic of plant communities, dominated by scattered xerophilous shrublands, semidesert grasslands, and vegetation linked to seasonal watercourses and ponds. eng Atribución 3.0 España Body-size structure of Central Iberian mammal fauna reveals semidesertic conditions during the middle Miocene Global Cooling Event journal article URL https://docta.ucm.es/bitstreams/1d3357cc-8217-4272-afc1-9bebfd23400d/download File MD5 40c25f4145f5eb83c1b6270233de5a53 6462970 application/pdf journal.plosone.0186762.pdf