Palaeoecological context for the extinction of the Neanderthals: A small mammal study of Stratigraphic Unit V of the El Salt site, Alcoi, eastern Spain

Abstract

El Salt is emerging as a reference site for the study of the extinction of Neanderthal populations in the Eastern Iberian Peninsula during MIS 3. The small vertebrate assemblage analysed in this work is framed within this general objective and comes from Stratigraphic Unit V, the most recent unit with human presence. Nearly 1300 small mammal remains have been studied in order to reconstruct the palaeoecological conditions of this debated period. A total of seven rodents (Microtus arvalis, Microtus duodecimcostatus, Microtus cabrerae, Sciurus vulgaris, Arvicola sapidus, Eliomys quercinus and Apodemus sylvaticus), three insectivores (Talpa occidentalis, Crocidura sp., Sorex sp.) and one lagomorph (Oryctolagus cf. cuniculus) were identified. Palaeocological analyse points to drier conditions in the upper part (Unit V) of the stratigraphic sequence, supporting the hypothesis that an aridification scenario may have played a role in the disappearance of the Neanderthal groups inhabiting this region of the Iberian Peninsula.