Small vertebrates from a Holocene gravelly deposit at El Salt (Alcoi, Alicante)

Abstract

The small-vertebrates' assemblage recovered comes from Units I to IV from El Salt site (Alcoi, Spain). The sample is composed by nearly 310 remains, and includes one toad (Epidalea calamita), two lizards (Lacertidae indet. and Chalcides cf. bedriagai), two snakes (Coronella cf. girondica and cf. Coronella sp.), two insectivores (Crocidura sp. and Sorex sp.), one lagomorph (Oryctolagus cuniculus) and seven rodent taxa (Arvicola sapidus, Microtus sp., M. arvalis, M. cabrerae, M. duodecimcostatus, Apodemus sylvaticus, and Eliomys quercinus). All the species described in the present work are consistent with a Late Pleistocene-Holocene RESUMEN El conjunto de pequeños vertebrados recuperado procede de las Unidades I a IV del yacimiento de El Salt. Esta muestra se compone de casi 310 restos e incluye un sapo (Epidalea calamita), dos lagartos (Lacertidae indet. y Chalcides cf. bedriagai), dos serpientes (Coronella cf. girondica y cf. Coronella sp.), dos insectívoros (Crocidura sp. y Sorex sp.), un lagomorfo (Oryctolagus cuniculus) y siete taxones de roedores (Arvicola sapidus, Microtus sp., M. arvalis, M. cabrerae, M. duodecimcostatus, Apodemus sylvaticus y Eliomys quercinus). Todas las especies descritas en el presente trabajo son consistentes con una cronología del Pleistoceno

Applying the UDA-ODA discrimination technique to a herpetological association: the case of the Middle Palaeolithic site of El Salt (Alcoi, Spain)

“…Neolithic pottery mixed with late Upper Palaeolithic, Epipalaeolithic and Mesolithic lithic remains indicates that this deposit is of Holocene age (Galván et al 2014). This together with the biochronological contradiction of the recovered small vertebrate fauna (presence of Microtus arvalis, extirpated in the region at the end of the Late Pleistocene) denotes reworked episode/s of this deposit (Fagoaga et al 2021).…”