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Sorex runtonensis (Mammalia, Soricidae) is a well-known Pleistocene taxon with a broad distribution in Europe. However, no record of the species had been reported from the Iberian Peninsula up to now. Here we present nearly two hundred specimens of S. runtonensis recovered from the Lower Red Unit (levels TE7–14) of Sima del Elefante (Sierra de Atapuerca, Burgos, Spain), dated to ~ 1.1–1.5 Ma. Rigorous morphometrical and morphological analyses allowed the assignation of the items from Sima del Elefante confidently to this taxon, distinguishing them from the several other Pleistocene species of similar size that inhabited Europe. Sorex runtonensis survived all through the Pleistocene (and maybe more), but the remains from Sima del Elefante exhibit some traits that appear to be particular to the Early Pleistocene, which agrees with the pre-Jaramillo chronology inferred for the lower levels of the site. Western Palearctic S. runtonensis has been regarded as a proxy of patchy and relatively arid, open past biotopes due to its similarity to recent Eastern Palearctic S. tundrensis. In light of this fact, and given the high relative quantities of this taxon at the site, previous palaeoenvironmental reconstructions proposed for the lowermost unit of Sima del Elefante should be revised to present a more ecologically diverse scenario than previously thought.

Heinrich Event 3 (H3) is well documented in the North Atlantic Ocean as a cooling event that occurred ca. 31 000 years ago. Deep-sea cores around the Iberian Peninsula coastline have been analysed to characterize the H3 event, but there are no data on the terrestrial response to this event. Here we present for the first time an analysis of terrestrial proxies for characterizing the H3 event, using the small-vertebrate assemblage (comprising small mammals, squamates and amphibians) from the Galls Carboners cave, an archaeo-palaeontological deposit located in the Prades mountain range in the north-eastern Iberian Peninsula. This assemblage shows the H3 event to be characterized in north-eastern Iberia by harsher and drier terrestrial conditions than today. Our results were compared with the small-vertebrate assemblage data recovered from present-day Strix aluco pellets available from this site, as well as with the general H3 event fluctuations and with other sites where the previous Heinrich events (H5 and H4) and subsequent Late Glacial Maximum have been detected in the Mediterranean and Atlantic regions of the Iberian Peninsula. Terrestrial proxies seem to follow the same climatic pattern as detected in the deep-sea cores at NorthGRIP and the Iberian margins. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., J.M.L.-G. is a beneficiary of a Beatriu de Pinós postdoctoral fellowship (2011 BP-A00272) from the Generalitat de Catalunya, a grant cofunded by the European Union through the Marie Curie Actions of the 7th Framework Program for R + D. J.I.M. was supported by a predoctoral grant (FI) from AGAUR (Generalitat de Catalunya) cofunded by the European Social Fund. This paper is part of projects CGL2012-38358 and SGR2009-324

Estado de las excavaciones y estudios realizados en La Cova de Dalt del Tossal de la Font (Castellón).

The Cova dels Xaragalls is a small open karst system, located in the municipality of Vimbodí-Poblet (Tarragona, Catalonia, NE Spain). It is an important Holocene archaeological site that was inspected in the 1970s but from which little has been published. New excavations starting in 2008 have exposed a deep Late Pleistocene stratigraphical sequence. In this paper, we present for the first time palaeoenvironmental and palaeoclimatic reconstructions of this Late Pleistocene succession on the basis of both the small-vertebrate assemblages and the charcoals. Results from the small-vertebrate associations along the sequence indicate that the landscape had open-woodland habitats in the vicinity of the Cova del Xaragalls, with wet points in the surrounding area. Woodland habitats were dominant throughout the sequence, as evidenced by the abundance of the species Apodemus sylvaticus, but were better developed during warm periods (layers C5 and C8), whereas during cold periods (layers C4 and C3) the environment was slightly more humid in response to higher mean annual precipitation and the opening of the landscape. The charcoal analysis indicates that the woodland surrounding the cave was composed mainly of Pinus (more than 90% was identified as Pinus), but that during the cold period (C3–C4) it incorporated some Quercus ilex/coccifera and Angiosperm indet., probably linked with greater precipitation. Comparisons are made with other long palaeoenvironmental sequences from the northeastern Iberian Peninsula and with global marine isotopic curves, providing a scenario for the palaeoclimatic and palaeoenvironmental changes that occurred during the Late Pleistocene in the woodland areas surrounding the Cova dels Xaragalls.