2009 SEQS CONFERENCE, ORCE AND LUCENA, SPAIN

PRESENCE OF TWO DIFFERENT BUFFALOES AT THE SITE OF VENTA

MICENA (ORCE, SPA I N)

Bienvenido MARTÍNEZ-NAVARRO. ICREA and IPHES – Universitat Rovira i

V i rgi l i , Plaça I mperial Tarraco 1, 43005 Tarragona, Spai n. E-mai l : bienvenido@icrea.es
Florent RIVALS. ICREA and IPHES – Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Plaça Imperial
Tarraco 1, 43005 Tarragona, Spai n
Sergio ROS-MONTOYA. Museo de Prehistoria y Paleontología, 18858 Orce, Spain
Mª . Patrocinio ESPIGARES. Museo de Prehistoria y Paleontología, 18858 Orce, Spai n
Paul PALMQVIST. Departamento de Ecología y Geología, Universidad de Màlaga,
Campus de Teati nos, Màl aga, Spai n

The large bovids of the European Early Pleistocene are domi nated by the presence of
the genus Bison, a descendant of the Late Pl iocene forms of Leptobos.
Bison is known from Dmanisi, at 1.8 Ma, where it was firstly named Dmanisibos
(Vekua 1995), until the Holocene, and it is the most abundant Quaternary buffalo of the
conti nent and, practical ly it is the only one genus recorded at most of the Early
Pleistocene sites of Europe.
The revision of all the large Bovidae col lection from the site of Venta Micena (~1.5 Ma)
shows that there are two species of buffaloes at this Early Pleistocene local ity. One of
them is clearly a form of Bison, as it was publ ished by Moyà-Solà (1987), and the other
corresponds to another different Bovini of small size and less sexual dimorphism than
Bison.
Microwear analysis of the dental material show that one of these species is feedi ng on
grasses (Bison, the large one), whi le the other is more browser. Thus, Bison was
probably living i n open environments and the smal ler species i nhabited more forested or
mixed areas.

REFERENCES

Moyà-Solà, S., 1987. Los bóvidos (Artiodactyla, Mammalia) del yacimiento del
Pleistoceno inferior de Venta Micena (Orce Granada, España). Paleontologia i
Evol ució, Memoria Especial 1, 181–236.

Vekua, A., 1995. Die Wirbeltierfauna des Villafranchian von Dmanisi und ihre
biostratigraphische Bedeutung. Jarhb. Ger.-- Röm. Zentralmuseum Mainz 42, 77-
180.

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