RT Journal Article
T1 New dating of the Matalascañas footprints provides new evidence of the Middle Pleistocene (MIS 9-8) hominin paleoecology in southern Europe
A1 Mayoral Alfaro, Eduardo
A1 Duveau, Jéremy
A1 Santos, Ana
A1 Rodríguez Ramírez, Antonio
A1 Morales González, Juan Antonio
A1 Díaz Delgado, Ricardo
A1 Rivera Silva, Jorge
A1 Gómez Olivencia, Asier
A1 Díaz Martínez, Ignacio
AB Hominin footprints were recently discovered at Matalascañas (Huelva; South of Iberian Peninsula). They were dated thanks to a previous study in deposits of the Asperillo cliff to 106 ± 19 ka, Upper Pleistocene, making Neandertals the most likely track-makers. In this paper, we report new Optically Stimulated Luminescence dating that places the hominin footprints surface in the range of 295.8 ± 17 ka (MIS 9-MIS 8 transition, Middle Pleistocene). This new age implies that the possible track-makers are individuals more likely from the Neandertal evolutionary lineage. Regardless of the taxon attributed to the Matalascañas footprints, they supplement the existing partial fossil record for the European Middle Pleistocene Hominins being notably the first palaeoanthropological evidence (hominin skeleton or footprints) from the MIS 9 and MIS 8 transition discovered in the Iberian Peninsula, a moment of climatic evolution from warm to cool. Thus, the Matalascañas footprints represent a crucial record for understanding human occupations in Europe in the Pleistocene.
PB Nature Research
YR 2022
FD 2022
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10272/21327
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10272/21327
LA eng
NO Mayoral, E., Duveau, J., Santos, A. et al. New dating of the Matalascañas footprints provides new evidence of the Middle Pleistocene (MIS 9-8) hominin paleoecology in southern Europe. Sci Rep 12, 17505 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-22524-2
NO We thank the Territorial Delegation in Huelva of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and SustainableDevelopment of the Junta de Andalucía for permission to conduct research. Furthermore, this work has beenfinancial support from the Ministry of Science and Innovation of Spain (grant no. PID2019-104625RB-100),the Andalusian Government to the Research Group RNM276 and Basque Government to the Research GroupEJ IT1418-19. In addition, AGO is supported by a Ramón y Cajal fellowship (RYC-2017-22558) and by theMinistry of Science and Innovation of Spain (grant no. PGC2018-093925-B-C33, MCI/AEI/FEDER, UE). Wewould also like to give special thanks to Alicia Medialdea Utande, Head of the Luminescence Research Line ofthe National Center for Research on Human Evolution—CENIEH, for her help and collaboration in the treatmentand interpretation of the data.
DS Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Huelva
RD 29 may 2026