Els Casots (Subirats, Catalonia), a key site for the Miocene vertebrate record of Southwestern Europe

Els Casots is one of the richest fossil vertebrate sites of the Vallès-Penedès Basin (Catalonia, Spain). It was discovered in 1989 and excavated briefly during the 1990s, resulting in the recovery of thousands of remains and the erection of several new mammal species. Excavations were resumed in 201...

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Authors: Casanovas-Vilar, Isaac, Garcés, Miguel, Marcuello, Álex, Abella, Juan, Madurell-Malapeira, Joan, Jovells-Vaqué, Sílvia, Cabrera, Lluís, Galindo, Jordi, Beamud, Elisabet, Ledo, Juan José, Queralt, Pilar, Martí, Anna, Sanjuan, Josep, Martín-Closas, Carles, Jiménez-Moreno, Gonzalo, Luján, Àngel H., Villa, Andrea, DeMiguel, Daniel, Sánchez, Israel M., Robles, Josep M., Furió, Marc, van den Hoek Ostende, Lars W., Sánchez-Marco, Antonio, Sanisidro, Óscar, Valenciano, Alberto, García-Paredes, Israel, Angelone, Chiara, Pons-Monjo, Guillem, Azanza, Beatriz, Delfino, Massimo, Bolet, Arnau, Grau-Camats, Montserrat, Vizcaíno-Varo, Víctor, Mormeneo, David, Kimura, Yuri, Moyà-Solà, Salvador, Alba, David M.
Format: article
Publication Date:2022
Country:España
Institution:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
Repository:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
OAI Identifier:oai:digital.csic.es:10261/265685
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10261/265685
https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/85126516650
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Taphonomy
Vallès-Penedès Basin
Palaeoenvironment
Spain
Fossil vertebrates
Miocene Climatic Optimum
Description
Summary:Els Casots is one of the richest fossil vertebrate sites of the Vallès-Penedès Basin (Catalonia, Spain). It was discovered in 1989 and excavated briefly during the 1990s, resulting in the recovery of thousands of remains and the erection of several new mammal species. Excavations were resumed in 2018 and continue to date. Here we provide updated results regarding the age, stratigraphy, biota and palaeoenvironment of the site. The age of the site is well constrained to ~15.9 Ma thanks to recent bio- and magnetostratigraphic data, thus coinciding with the Miocene Climatic Optimum (MCO). The stratigraphic succession at the site area indicates lacustrine to palustrine environments with cyclically oscillating water level. There are several fossiliferous layers that have yielded a vertebrate fauna comprising up to 75 different vertebrate species including amphibians, reptiles, birds and mostly mammals. The finding of several articulated partial skeletons indicate that the site records an autochthonous to parautochthonous assemblage. The abundance and completeness of the vertebrate remains together with a well-constrained age and detailed stratigraphic and palaeoenvironmental data, make els Casots a key site for understanding wetland ecosystems in southern Europe during the MCO.

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