Morphometry of a partial Late Pleistocene dhole (Cuon alpinus europaeus (Bourguignat, 1868); Carnivora, Canidae) skeleton from Llonin Cave (Asturias, Spain) and its taphonomic origin - 03/09/24

Doi : 10.1016/j.geobios.2024.03.001

Alfred Sanchis ^a,^⁎ , Elsa Duarte ^b, Leopoldo Pérez ^c,^d, Cristina Real ^c, Asier Gómez-Olivencia ^e,^f,^g, Francisco Pastor ^h, Marco de la Rasilla ^b
^a Museu de Prehistòria de València, Servei d’Investigació Prehistòrica (SIP), Diputació de València, Corona 36, 46003 Valencia, Spain
^b Departamento de Historia. Área de Prehistoria, Universidad de Oviedo, C/ Amparo Pedregal, s/n, 33011 Oviedo, Spain
^c Departament de Prehistòria, Arqueologia i Història Antiga, Universitat de València, Blasco Ibáñez 28, 46010 Valencia, Spain, PREMEDOC GIUV2015-213
^d Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social (IPHES-CERCA), Zona Educacional 4, Campus Sescelades URV (Edifici W3), 43007 Tarragona, Spain
^e Departamento de Geología, Facultad de Ciencia y Tecnología, Universidad del País Vasco-Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea (UPV/EHU), Leioa, Spain
^f Sociedad de Ciencias Aranzadi, Donostia-San Sebastián, Spain
^g Centro UCM-ISCIII de Investigación sobre Evolución y Comportamiento Humanos, Madrid, Spain
^h Museo Anatómico, Departamento de Anatomía y Radiología, Universidad de Valladolid, Ramón y Cajal 7, 47005 Valladolid, Spain

^⁎Corresponding author.

Sous presse. Épreuves corrigées par l'auteur. Disponible en ligne depuis le Tuesday 03 September 2024

Abstract

In this paper, we present the remains of a single dhole discovered in three Late Pleistocene levels (Cono Posterior sector) of Llonin Cave, in Asturias (Spain). Said remains consist of the partial skeleton of an adult individual, showing small-sized dentition with a high degree of hypercarnivorism, typical of populations with derived traits from the Late Pleistocene in Europe. Morphometric analysis of the bone assemblage reveals that it belongs to the subspecies Cuon alpinus europaeus (Bourguignat, 1868). A direct dating on a dhole bone has provided a date of 29231 ± 387 BP and confirms its archaeological stratigraphic position associated with the Gravettian phase of the site. The taphonomic history of the dhole assemblage and their spatial distribution provides information about the interaction processes and cave occupation dynamics by these canids and by prehistoric human groups.

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Keywords : Cuon alpinus, Morphometry, Taphonomy, Anthropized structures, Gravettian, Iberian Peninsula