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)

Abstract

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.

Plio-Pleistocene hydrothermal events of the Baza Basin (Betic Cordillera, SE Spain) and their paleoecological implications

“…The Orce sub-basin preserves a unique fossil record of terrestrial vertebrates, including two archaeological sites dated to ~ 1.4 Ma (see review in Palmqvist et al, 2016) that mark the earliest presence of hominins in Western Europe: Barranco León (BL) and Fuente Nueva-3 (FN3). BL and FN3 preserve huge assemblages of skeletal remains of large mammals and Oldowan tools, which are linked through the presence of anthropogenic cut and percussion marks, as well as a human deciduous tooth in the case of BL, which is at this moment the oldest hominin fossil found in Western Europe (Martínez-Navarro et al, 1997Oms et al, 2000aOms et al, , 2000bEspigares et al, 2013Espigares et al, , 2019Toro-Moyano et al, 2013;Titton et al, 2021;Yravedra et al, 2021Yravedra et al, , 2022Palmqvist et al, 2023). Moreover, the Venta Micena site (VM, 1.6-1.5 Ma), which is slightly older than BL/FN3 and has been interpreted as a denning area of the giant hyena Pachycrocuta brevirostris (Arribas and Palmqvist, 1998;Palmqvist and Arribas, 2001;Palmqvist et al, 2022b), provides an excellent record of the large mammal community that preceded the hominin dispersal in the basin (Martínez-Navarro, 1991;Mendoza et al, 2005;Rodríguez-Gómez et al, 2017).…”

“…8B), which increase the net primary productivity thanks to their saline contents (García-Aguilar et al, 2014, 2015; Palmqvist et al, 2022a). Figure 8 also includes the mean estimates of carrying capacity for the Orce sites (3827.8 kg/km 2 for VM and 3307.6 kg/km 2 for BL/FN-3), obtained using an approach based on the Weibull model (see Rodríguez-Gómez et al, 2022, and the estimates of annual rainfall, based on the composition of the herpetological assemblages in the case of BL/FN-3 (700 mm for BL and 738 mm for FN-3; Blain et al, 2016) and on the abundance of nitrogen isotopes in the bone collagen retrieved from the fossils of large mammals from VM (800 mm; Palmqvist et al, 2022cPalmqvist et al, , 2023. As deduced for the Baza Basin, the presence of thermal waters provided a variety of salts and trace elements.…”

“…1A), which extends over an area of ~ 4000 km 2 (Palmqvist et al, 2022a) and is surrounded by the highest reliefs of the Alpine Betic cordillera. This inland basin preserves a unique Plio-Pleistocene sedimentary record of high preservational completeness, which is composed of uvio-lacustrine deposits that preserve many paleontological and archaeological localities distributed throughout the whole sedimentary depression, and especially in the Baza Basin (Martínez-Navarro, 1991;Palmqvist et al, 1996Palmqvist et al, , 2011Palmqvist et al, , 2022aPalmqvist et al, , 2022bPalmqvist et al, , 2023 1). The presence of Plio-Pleistocene hydrothermal events in the Baza Basin and their paleoecological consequences has been documented since the end of the 20th century by means of sedimentological, tectonic, and mineralogical data (e.g., Sebastián Pardo, 1979; García-Aguilar, 1997; García-Aguilar et al, 2014, 2015; Sánchez-Roa et al, 2016).…”

“…Palmqvist et al, 2022aPalmqvist et al, , 2023. According to the evidence unearthed from the fossil sites of Orce, the hominins developed a scavenging behavior as a successful strategy to obtain animal resources in the Baza Basin(Espigares et al, 2019;Palmqvist et al, 2023). Analyses on resource partitioning among the members of the carnivore guild suggest that scavenging was the optimal strategy for these hominin populations (Rodríguez-Gómez et al, 2016).…”

The late Early Pleistocene site of Fuente Nueva-3 (Guadix-Baza Depression, SE Spain): A hyena latrine developed on a quicksand trap for megaherbivores?

“…The archaeological sites of BLD and FN3 preserve huge lithic assemblages of Oldowan (i.e., Mode 1) tradition (Turq et al, 1996;Martínez-Navarro et al, 1997;Toro et al, 2011Toro et al, , 2013; Barsky et al, 2015Barsky et al, , 2016Barsky et al, , 2022Titton et al, 2018 and abundant skeletal remains of vertebrates, particularly large mammals. Some of these fossils show anthropogenic marks related to de eshing, butchering and marrow processing (Espigares et al, 2013(Espigares et al, , 2019(Espigares et al, , 2023Yravedra et al, 2021Yravedra et al, , 2022Palmqvist et al, 2023a, b). Moreover, a deciduous tooth of Homo sp.…”