Palaeoecological analysis of micrommammal communities from the Arago cave (Tautavel, France) in the context of middle pleistocene faunal migrations in Western Mediterranean Europe

摘要

The study of rodent faunas has widely contributed to the knowledge ot the evolution ot the palaeoenvironments during the Quaternary. The evolution of rodent associations found in the deposits of the Arago cave are dated between 600,000 and 400,000 years (MIS 14 to MIS 12); during their evolution mammalian communities arrived from eastern Europe, Siberia and the mountains of Central Asia (Ochotona pusilla, Citellus sp., Microtus (Stenocranius) gregalis and Dicrostonyx torquatus), as well as from northern Europe (Microtus gr. oeconomus). Their migration can be related to a major climatic change that occurred during the early Middle Pleistocene. The faunal change can be correlated with the establishment of more pronounced glacial-interglacial periods, modulated by a 100 ka periodicity and resulting in the cyclic dispersal throughout western Europe of taxa having with warm-humid (intcrglacial) and cold-dry (glacial) affinities. Our comparative studies on the appearance of micromammal species specific of dry and cold environment in eastern, central, northern and Mediterranean Europe during this period have led us to believe that micromammals, especially rodents, have mostly reacted to the change of the climate at the end of the early Middle Pleistocene (MlS 14 to 12). The Arago cave, located near the Mediterranean Sea coast, at the eastern end of the Pyrenees has well recorded this faunal turnover, whereas Spain and Italy, which appear to have been less affected by the expansion of those faunas, due to geographical barriers. In conclusion, such geographical and ecological specificities must be taken into account for micromammal fauna comparisons during the Middle Pleistocene.