The Vallparadís section (Terrassa, Iberian Peninsula) and the latest Villafranchian faunas of Europe J. Madurell-Malapeira a, * , R. Minwer-Barakat a , D.M. Alba a , M. Garcés b , M. Gómez c , J. Aurell-Garrido a , S. Ros-Montoya d , S. Moyà-Solà a, e , X. Berástegui c a Institut Català de Paleontologia, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Edifici ICP, Campus de la UAB s/n, 08193 Cerdanyola del Vallès, Barcelona, Spain b Department of Stratigraphy, Paleontology and Marine Geosciences, Group of Geodynamics and Basin Analysis, Universitat de Barcelona, 08028 Barcelona, Spain c Institut Geològic de Catalunya, 08006 Barcelona, Spain d Museo de Prehistoria y Paleontología, 18858, Orce, Granada, Spain e ICREA at Unitat d’Antropologia Biològica (Dept. BABVE), Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Edifici ICP, Campus de la UAB s/n, 08193 Cerdanyola del Vallès, Barcelona, Spain article info Article history: Received 13 July 2010 Received in revised form 21 September 2010 Accepted 22 September 2010 abstract The late Early to early Middle Pleistocene section from Torrent de Vallparadís is a 20 m-thick, composite section with multiple stratigraphic horizons, which have yielded close to 30,000 remains of large and small vertebrates, as well as macrobotanical remains of non-carbonized wood and a complete pollen record. This series is well correlated on the basis of magnetostratigraphic and small mammal biostratigraphic data, ranging from 1.2 to 0.6 Ma. There are only a few other European localities recording this time interval from a faunal, floral and stratigraphical perspective, so that the Vallparadís series provides a unique opportunity to investigate the faunal and environmental changes that occurred in south-western Europe during the Early to Middle Pleistocene transition. This time interval recorded at Vallparadís coincides with major climatic changes at a global scale (the Middle Pleistocene Transition), which had important effects on the composition of mammalian assemblages. The remains recovered from the latest Early Pleistocene layers of the Vallparadís section show that most of the components of the Villafranchian carnivore guild survived until close to the Brunhes-Matuyama boundary (probably until the interglacial stage 21), which might have significantly influenced the foraging strategies of early Homo in Europe. On the other hand, the remains of the straight-tusked elephant, Elephas (Palaeoloxodon) antiquus, from the latest Early Pleistocene layers of Vallparadís represent the earliest European record of this species, indicating that the dispersal of African elements into Europe during the Middle Pleistocene Transition began earlier than previously thought, at close to 1 Ma. Ó 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The faunal turnover that occurred around the Early/Middle Pleistocene transition in Europe involved the extinction of most Villafranchian faunal elements. These include many carnivoran taxa, such as the giant hyena Pachycrocuta brevirostris, the felids Mega- ntereon whitei, Acinonyx pardinensis, Panthera gombaszoegensis and Puma pardoides, and the pack-hunting canid Lycaon lycaonoides, as well as the equids Equus altidens and Equus sussenbornensis. On the other hand, species of African origin arrived to Europe by this time, including the lion (Panthera leo), the leopard (Panthera pardus) and the spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta), as well as the straight-tusked elephant (Elephas (Palaeoloxodon) antiquus) and the auroch (Bos primigenius). Simultaneously, species of Asian origin, such as the steppe mammoth (Mammuthus trogontherii), the red deer (Cervus elaphus), an Indian bovid (Hemibos galerianus), the horse (Equus ferus) and probably the wild boar (Sus scrofa), among others, are first recorded in Europe by this time (Martínez-Navarro et al., 2009a,b). In the paleontological literature, this faunal turnover is known as the ‘C. crocuta event’ (Martínez-Navarro, 2010; see also Palombo et al., 2008, for additional discussion). This major faunal renewal occurred during a time span ranging from 1.1 to 0.6 Ma, thus roughly coinciding in time with the major global climatic changes that are known as the Middle Pleistocene Transition (MPT; Clark et al., 2006) or Mid-Pleistocene Revolution (MPR; Maslin and Ridgwell, 2005), which spanned between 1.25 and 0.7 Ma. Before the onset of this faunal turnover, climate was dominated by 41 ky obliquity orbital cycles, whereas towards its end, this mode had shifted to a highly non-linear system dominated by 100 ky periodicity with asym- metric glacial/interglacial cycles (Clark et al., 2006; Almogi-Labin, in * Corresponding author. Tel.: þ34935868331; fax: þ34935868333. E-mail address: joan.madurell@icp.cat (J. Madurell-Malapeira). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Quaternary Science Reviews journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/quascirev 0277-3791/$ e see front matter Ó 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2010.09.020 Quaternary Science Reviews 29 (2010) 3972e3982