Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Département Systématique et Evolution, UMR 7205, Laboratoire de Zoologie des Mammifères et Oiseaux, 55 rue Buffon, 75005 Paris, France.
J Hum Evol. 2011 Jan;60(1):1-33. doi: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2010.07.016. Epub 2010 Oct 30.
The relationship between local and global climatic variations and the origin and dispersal of Homo sapiens in Africa is complex, and North Africa may have played a major role in these events. In Morocco, very few studies are specifically dedicated to small fossil vertebrates, and neither taphonomic nor palaeoecological studies have been undertaken on these taxa, particularly in archaeological contexts. The late Pleistocene to middle Holocene succession of El Harhoura 2 cave, situated in the region of Témara, yields an exceptionally rich small vertebrate assemblage. We present the results of a first systematic, taphonomic, and palaeoecological study of the small mammals from Levels 1 to 8 of El Harhoura 2. The absence of bone sorting and polishing, as well as the presence of significant traces of digestion indicate that the small mammal bones were accumulated in the cave by predators and that no water transport occurred. Other traces observed on the surface of bones consist mainly of root marks and black traces (micro-organisms or more probably manganese) which affected the majority of the material. The percentage of fragmentation is very high in all stratigraphic levels, and the post-depositional breakage (geologic and anthropogenic phenomena) obscure the original breakage patterns of bones by predators. According to the ecology of the different species present in the levels of El Harhoura 2, and by taking into account possible biases highlighted by the taphonomic analysis, we reconstruct the palaeoenvironmental evolution in the region. For quantitative reconstructions we used two indices: the Taxonomic Habitat Index (THI) and the Gerbillinae/Murinae ratio. Late Pleistocene accumulations were characterised by a succession of humid (Levels 3, 4a, 6, and 8) and arid (Levels 2?, 5, and 7) periods, with more or less open landscapes, ending in an ultimate humid and wooded period during the middle Holocene (Level 1). We discuss particular limits of our results and interpretations, due to an important lack of taxonomic, ecological, and taphonomic knowledge in North Africa.
非洲本地和全球气候变化与智人起源和扩散之间的关系很复杂，北非可能在这些事件中发挥了重要作用。在摩洛哥，很少有专门针对小型化石脊椎动物的研究，也没有对这些分类群进行埋藏学或古生态学研究，特别是在考古背景下。位于特马拉地区的埃尔哈赫拉 2 洞的晚更新世至中全新世地层序列提供了一个特别丰富的小型脊椎动物组合。我们介绍了对埃尔哈赫拉 2 号洞穴 1 到 8 层的小型哺乳动物进行的首次系统的埋藏学和古生态学研究结果。没有骨骼分拣和抛光的痕迹，以及大量消化痕迹的存在，表明小型哺乳动物的骨骼是被捕食者在洞穴中积累的，并且没有水的搬运作用。在骨骼表面观察到的其他痕迹主要是根痕和黑色痕迹（微生物或更可能是锰），这些痕迹影响了大多数材料。所有地层中的破碎率都非常高，沉积后断裂（地质和人为现象）掩盖了捕食者造成的原始骨骼断裂模式。根据埃尔哈赫拉 2 号地层中存在的不同物种的生态学，并考虑到埋藏学分析中突出的可能偏差，我们重建了该地区的古环境演变。为了进行定量重建，我们使用了两个指数：分类栖息地指数（THI）和沙鼠科/鼠科比值。晚更新世的堆积物特征是一个潮湿（第 3、4a、6 和 8 层）和干旱（第 2?、5 和 7 层）时期的连续交替，具有或多或少的开阔景观，最终在中全新世演变为一个潮湿和多树木的时期（第 1 层）。我们讨论了我们的结果和解释的一些特殊限制，这是由于北非在分类学、生态学和埋藏学知识方面存在重要的不足。
