Data review on the small mammals from the late Early Pleistocene of Vallparadís Estació layer EVT7 (Vallès-Penedès Basin, NE Iberian Peninsula): Biochronological and palaeoenvironmental implications

Abstract The chronology of layer EVT7 of the Vallparadis Estacio section has been a hotly debated topic during recent years, with some authors supporting an age close to the Early-Middle Pleistocene boundary (0.83 Ma), others favouring an age older than the Jaramillo magnetostratigraphic subchron (ca. 1.2 Ma) and others proposing a chronology between 0.98 and 0.95 Ma for layer EVT7. Here, we review the biochronological data from EVT7, and review the biochronology based on the study of Mimomys savini using all the available remains of this species, which is the most abundant rodent species from this layer. Based on the morphologic and biometric comparison with remains of the same species from other similarly-aged Iberian localities (Gran Dolina TD4-6 from Atapuerca, and Barranco Leon D and Fuente Nueva 3 from the Guadix-Baza Basin), we propose an estimated age for EVT7 in the chronologic range from 0.99 to 0.94 Ma. We further perform a paleoenvironmental study based on the whole small-mammal assemblage from EVT7, which allows us to infer an open and humid environment in the vicinity of a lacustrine area or fluvial course. Recently published work also studied the rodent assemblage from EVT7. However, in this study only a part of the small mammals recovered from EVT7 was studied, and therefore its results can be partially biased.