First fossil evidence of an "interglacial refugium" in the Pyrenean region.
A refugium is generally understood as an area where temperate species survive cold periods, such as the Iberian, Italian, or Balkan Peninsulas in Europe. Strictly speaking, this definition refers to what is known as a glacial refugium. However, there are various types of lesser-known refugia such as the interglacial refugium, which denotes a mountainous region at low latitudes, such as the Pyrenees, where species adapted to the cold survive during interstadial periods. The small-vertebrate association from the sequence of Cova Colomera, which is located on the southern face of the Pyrenees and contains the final cold spell of the Late Pleistocene and the beginnings of the temperate period in which we currently find ourselves (the Holocene), could constitute the first fossil evidence of such an interglacial refugium, thus providing new paleoecological data on the phenomenon.
López-García
Juan Manuel
JM
Institut de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social (Unitat associada al CSIC), Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Plaça Imperial Tarraco 1, 43005 Tarragona, Spain. jmlopez@iphes.cat
Blain
Hugues-Alexandre
HA
Allué
Ethel
E
Bañuls
Sandra
S
Bargalló
Amelia
A
Martín
Patricia
P
Morales
Juan Ignacio
JI
Pedro
Mireia
M
Rodríguez
Anna
A
Solé
Alex
A
Oms
F Xavier
FX
D000531:Altitude; D000818:Animals; D002980:Climate; D005580:Fossils; D005843:Geography; D006116:Greenland; D007053:Ice; D046448:Ice Cover; D008522:Mediterranean Sea; D012377:Rodentia / Q000145:classification; D012621:Seasons; D013030:Spain; D014714:Vertebrates / Q000145:classification
D007053:Ice