Estudio de los caballos del yacimiento de Quibas, Pleistoceno Inferior final (Abanilla, Murcia, España)

Abstract

RESUMENEn este artículo se describen más de 60 restos fósiles de équido recuperados en el yacimiento kárstico del Pleistoceno Inferior final de Quibas (Abanilla, Murcia). Se hace un estudio de su taxonomía y morfología, estado evolutivo y los factores paleoclimáticos vinculados. Comparando con fósiles de équidos hallados en otras localidades españolas y europeas a través de análisis multivariantes, los restos se asignan en su mayor parte a la especie de tamaño medio Equus altidens, último eslabón del linaje de los caballos estenonianos. En España, esta especie se relaciona con unas condiciones climáticas cálidas o cálidas-templadas, cuya vegetación principal estaría compuesta de bosque o bosque-sabana. Se constata también una escasa presencia de Equus suessenbornensis por primera vez en el yacimiento de Quibas.Palabras clave: Pleistoceno Inferior final; Quibas; Equus altidens; estenoniano; Equus suessenbornensis. ABSTRACTIn this paper, over 60 fossil horse remains from the latest early Pleistocene karstic site of Quibas (Abanilla, Murcia, Spain) are described. Their taxonomy and morphology, evolutionary stage, and paleoecological determining factors are studied. The multivariate analysis through comparison with different forms that occur in other Spanish and European localities shows that the majority of the fossils match the medium-sized species Equus altidens. This species represents the last form in the stenonoid lineage. In Spain, E. altidens is related to warm or warm-temperate climate, in woodlands or savanna-mosaic habitats. Equus suessenbornensis is also sparsely represented, first cited in the site of Quibas.

First continuous pre-Jaramillo to Jaramillo terrestrial vertebrate succession from Europe

“…6). This correlation is consistent with the macromammal association from Quibas-Cueva described by Montoya et al 44,45 , Piñero and Alberdi 50 and Alba et al 51 , which includes two species of horses (Equus altidens and Equus suessenbornensis) and the macaque Macaca sylvanus florentina.…”

The Quibas Site (Murcia, Spain): New Herbivores From the Early-Middle Pleistocene Transition

“…2 Ma ago at Fonelas-1 (Alberdi et al 1997). The presence of specimens assigned to both E. altidens and E. suessenbornensis has been previously determined at Quibas, agreeing with the chronology proposed for the levels (Piñero & Alberdi 2015). Biometric comparison with the synchronic taxon E. apolloniensis has not been considered, as its distribution seems to be restricted to Eastern Europe (Gkeme et al 2021;Cirilli 2022).…”

“…Since its discovery in 1994, multiple research projects have been carried out at the Quibas site, resulting in the identification of more than 70 species of vertebrates and invertebrates (Montoya et al 1999(Montoya et al , 2001Carlos-Calero et al 2006c, b;Alba et al 2011, Blain et al 2014Pérez-García et al 2015;Piñero & Alberdi 2015;Piñero et al , 2020. published the most recent faunal list of the site, including five herbivorous macromammals: Equus altidens von Reichenau, 1915, Sus sp., Cervidae indet.…”

Biostratigraphy and Palaeoecology of European Equus

“…These two species, in addition to the Süssenborn type locality, are frequently found sympatrically in many other deposits. The association is particularly well-documented in Akhalkalaki, Georgia (1.0 to 0.8 Ma) (Vekua, 1986), in several sites in the Guadix-Baza basin in southern Spain between 1.4 and 0.9 Ma (Alberdi and Ruiz Bustos, 1989;Alberdi et al, 1998;Alberdi, 2010), in the region of Murcia Cueva Victoria and Quibas (Alberdi and Piñero, 2015;Piñero and Alberdi, 2015), in Italy between 1.5 and 0.6 Ma (Alberdi and Palombo, 2013) and in France (Bois de Riquet, Bourguignon et al, 2016; Figure 5). They could both be represented in the Czech Republic at Stranska Skala (Musil, 1995) and in Romania (Samson, 1975).…”

“…In this scheme a local evolution in Europe from a stenonid stock is proposed for both species. With an overall trend from robust to gracile, Equus altidens could represent the latest form of the stenonid group (Alberdi et al, 1998;Piñero and Alberdi, 2015). Intermediate chronological forms in relative proportions (Selvella, Libakos, and Pirro Nord) provide support for this model (Van der Made et al, 2017) at least in Italy, but points of view diverge about the taxonomy of the equids from these localities (De Giuli, 1987;Azzaroli, 1990;Forsten, 1999a;Eisenmann, 2004aEisenmann, , 2006aAlberdi and Palombo, 2013;Gkeme et al, 2017).…”