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The small vertebrate assemblages from the Aurignacian deposits of the Mas d’Azil cave (Ariège, France): new data for the understanding of the MIS3 environmental changes in the Pyrenees

Emmanuelle STOETZEL, Loïc LEBRETON, Céline PALLIER, Laurent BRUXELLES, François BON, Mathieu LEJAY, Lars ANDERSON, Hélène MARTIN & Marc JARRY

en Comptes Rendus Palevol 24 (1) - Pages 1-18

Published on 22 January 2025

The Mas d’Azil cave, located in southwestern France in the foothills of the Pyrenees, is a major site for the study and understanding of the European Upper Palaeolithic. The early Aurignacian levels (US4 and US5) have yielded 3 762 remains of small vertebrates, allowing to document the faunal communities in this border region during the MIS3 (c. 40-37 ky cal. BP), and to propose interpretations of the taphonomic and paleoenvironmental context of the human occupations. The accumulations from both US were mainly formed by predation, and the climatic conditions were mostly temperate, but slightly colder than the current ones. The landscape was dominated by grasslands, with wooded areas in the valley, and steppes and rocky areas on the slopes. The geographical position of the site, under the climatic influences of the Mediterranean Sea, the Atlantic Ocean and the Pyrenees, may have ­created proximity between faunal communities of different ecological affinities. The results obtained are placed in the broader regional context of the MIS3 in southwestern France and northeastern Spain.


Keywords:

Amphibians, birds, micromammals, taphonomy, palaeoecology, Late Pleistocene, southwestern France

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