title: Discontinuity of human presence at Atapuerca during the early Middle Pleistocene: a matter of ecological competition?
abstract: Increasing evidence suggests that the European human settlement is older than 1.2 Ma. However, there is a fierce debate about the continuity or discontinuity of the early human settlement of Europe. In particular, evidence of human presence in the interval 0.7-0.5 Ma is scarce in comparison with evidence for the previous and later periods. Here, we present a case study in which the environmental conditions at Sierra de Atapuerca in the early Middle Pleistocene, a period without evidence of human presence, are compared with the conditions in the previous period, for which a relatively intense human occupation is documented. With this objective in mind, the available resources for a human population and the intensity of competition between secondary consumers during the two periods are compared using a mathematical model. The Gran Dolina site TD8 level, dated to 0.7-0.6 Ma, is taken as representative of the period during which Atapuerca was apparently not occupied by humans. Conditions at TD8 are compared with those of the previous period, represented by the TD6-2 level, which has yielded abundant evidence of intense human occupation. The results show that survival opportunities for a hypothetical human population were lower at TD8 than they were at TD6-2. Increased resource competition between secondary consumers arises as a possible explanation for the absence of human occupation at Atapuerca in the early Middle Pleistocene.
authors: Paleofisiología y Ecología Social de homínidos, Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH), Burgos, Spain.
authors: Guillermo
authors: G
authors: Rodríguez-Gómez
authors: Paleofisiología y Ecología Social de homínidos, Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH), Burgos, Spain.
authors: Ana
authors: A
authors: Mateos
authors: Departamento de Matemáticas y Computación, Universidad de Burgos, Burgos, Spain, and temporarily assigned to CENIEH, Burgos, Spain.
authors: Jesús Angel
authors: JA
authors: Martín-González
authors: The Gibraltar Museum, Gibraltar, Gibraltar.
authors: Ruth
authors: R
authors: Blasco
authors: Àrea de Prehistòria, Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV), Tarragona, Spain; Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social (IPHES), Tarragona, Spain.
authors: Jordi
authors: J
authors: Rosell
authors: Paleofisiología y Ecología Social de homínidos, Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH), Burgos, Spain.
authors: Jesús
authors: J
authors: Rodríguez
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D000818:Animals; D018533:Biomass; D003163:Competitive Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D055669:Ecological and Environmental Phenomena; D017753:Ecosystem; D005060:Europe; D005502:Food; D005580:Fossils; D015186:Hominidae; D006801:Humans; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D011157:Population Dynamics; D013997:Time Factors