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Pleistocene vertebrates from Portugal: Paleobiodiversity, paleoecology and quality of the fossil record
Publication . Estraviz-López, Darío; Ríos Ibáñez, María; D´Anglade, Aurora
The Pleistocene fossil vertebrates of Portugal have important implications for our understanding of modern ecosystems. This thesis aims to be a comprehensive and multidisciplinary investigation, integrating over 150 years of paleontological data with new analytical methodologies. This will help to clarify overarching questions in paleontology like the representativeness of the fossil record, as well as several questions related with individual clades. The oldest sites from Western Iberia (Early Pleistocene) are reviewed, and a new locality (Santa Margarida) is presented, including the first documented occurrences in Portugal of the voles
Victoriamys chalinei and Iberomys huescarensis. This research also unexpectedly helped to disentangle the
evolutionary history of the snow leopard by describing Panthera uncia lusitana, a new fossil
subspecies of snow leopard from Portugal, revealing the key adaptations acquired during the
evolution of this clade of pantherine cats. Further work with digital and molecular paleontological techniques delves deeper into the paleoecology and paleobiology of this unexpected
felid. A detailed analysis of over 500 bear remains from six Portuguese localities refines our
understanding of the fossil populations of this species, describing a robust Late Pleistocene
population that might share analogous ecological traits to cave bears, and providing a framework for the brown bear evolution in Iberia. Finally, the first comprehensive census of Pleistocene terrestrial tetrapods in Portugal documents over 680 occurrences of 200 taxa across over
40 sites, providing data about the relationship of biodiversity with the fossil record that it leaves
behind, as only 38% of modern tetrapod species in Portugal were recorded as Pleistocene
fossils. This thesis improves our knowledge of the Pleistocene fossil record of Portugal, underscores the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration, and demonstrates the enduring potential for new discoveries. Future research on the lines of investigation laid on this thesis will be critical to further inform conservation strategies and better understand both the past and modern biodiversity.
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Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia
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2020.05395.BD