Cerro de los Batallones

2015 field works at Batallones 10 fossil site.
A baculum of Indarctos arctoides found at Batallones-3.

Cerro de los Batallones (Hill of the Battalions) is a hill at Torrejón de Velasco, Madrid, Spain where a number of fossil sites from the Upper Miocene (MN10) have been found.[1][2][3] Nine sites have been discovered with predominantly vertebrate fossils, invertebrates and plants being less represented. The first deposits were discovered accidentally in July 1991.

Batallones-10 (B-10) is considered to contain the oldest representative of fossils.[3]

Fossils

Nearly the entire proportion of fossils of Batallones-1 were of Carnivorans.[4] The species of sabre-tooth cat known as Promegantereon ogygia and Machairodus aphanistus (the first complete skull)[5] were found at B-1,[6] as was Simocyon a type of red panda.[7] In regards to the saber-tooth cats, Batallones-1 represents an ideal site for recording the percentage of specimens for which breakage of the upper canines occurred. Promegantereon, Machairodus and Paramachaerodus are perfect examples of this at Batallones; fossils indicate a high number of canine breaks from where the teeth hit the bones of a struggling victim, indicating these early machairodonts would use their elongated teeth to subdue prey as modern big cats do.[8]

A new species of Hispanomys (Rodentia) was found at various sites.[3] A new species of Micromeryx (deer) was found at B-1 and B-10.[9]

Fauna

Below is a list of notable fossil genera from Cerro de los Batallones.[10]

Artiodactyla

Carnivora

Perissodactyla

Proboscidea

Rodentia

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Domingo et al. 2011
  2. ^ Morales, Alcalá & Álvarez-Sierra 2004
  3. ^ a b c López-Antoñanzas et al. 2010
  4. ^ Peigné et al. 2008
  5. ^ Antón et al. 2004
  6. ^ Salesa et al. 2006
  7. ^ Peigné et al. 2005
  8. ^ Anton, Mauricio (2013). Sabertooth.
  9. ^ Sánchez, Domingo & Morales 2009
  10. ^ Antón, Mauricio (2013). Sabertooth. Bloomington, Indiana: University of Indiana Press. p. 52. ISBN 9780253010421.
  11. ^ Morales et al. 2021[1]

References

40°10′20″N 3°42′51″W / 40.17222°N 3.71417°W / 40.17222; -3.71417