Three very different records are combined here to reconstruct the evolution of environments in the Cantabrian Region during the Upper Pleistocene, covering ~35.000 years. Two of these records come from Antoliñako Koba (Bizkaia, Spain), an exceptional prehistoric deposit comprising 9 chrono-cultural units (Aurignacian to Epipaleolithic). The palaeoecological signal of small-vertebrate communities and red deer stable-isotope data (δ13C and δ15N) from this mainland site are contrasted to marine microfaunal evidence (planktonic and benthic foraminifers, ostracods and δ18O data) gathered at the southern Bay of Biscay. Many radiocarbon dates for the Antoliña’s sequence, made it possible to compare the different proxies among them and with other well-known North-Atlantic records. Cooling and warming events regionally recorded, mostly coincide with the climatic evolution of the Upper Pleistocene in the north hemisphere.

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Late Quaternary (MIS 3 to Recent) oceanographic evolution of the Basque shelf has been analysed for the first time based on the sedimentological analysis of three cores obtained from the middle and outer shelves. The cores are located in two interfluves separated by the San Sebastian canyon. The variability of the percentage of the planktonic foraminifera species Neogloboquadrina pachyderma sin. and of δ 18 Obull allowed us to identify the influence of colder and warmer waters in the Basque shelf during the late Quaternary. From ∼56 cal. ka BP to the end of the Last Glacial Maximum (19 cal. ka BP) the sedimentary record shows a decreasing trend in the mean grain size that correlates with the eustatic sea-level fall. The last Deglaciation (19-11.5 cal. ka BP) is characterized by a sea-level rise that produced an important hiatus in the western outer shelf. During the Holocene, the middle and outer shelves present different behaviours. From 11.5 to 6.7 cal. ka BP, in the outer shelf the sea-level rise that started during the Deglaciation produced a hiatus, whereas in the middle shelf the sedimentary succession records the presence of warm to temperate waters. Between 6.7-4.9 cal. ka BP, the entrance of cold surface water-masses that only affected the middle shelf has been identified, and temperate to warm waters occurred in the outer shelf. The cold surface water-masses retreated during 4.9-4.3 cal. ka BP in the middle shelf. Finally, from 4.3 cal. ka BP to Recent, the middle shelf registers a hiatus due to sea-level stabilization after a generalized transgression, synchronous to a decrease in the energy of the water-masses in the outer shelf. In conclusion, the environmental changes detected in the Basque shelf are attributed to both regional and eustatic sea-level changes.