Joan Madurell-Malapeira

Bio: Joan Madurell-Malapeira is an academic researcher from Autonomous University of Barcelona. The author has contributed to research in topics: Early Pleistocene & Villafranchian. The author has an hindex of 15, co-authored 50 publications receiving 718 citations. Previous affiliations of Joan Madurell-Malapeira include University of Perugia.

Villafranchian large mammals from the Iberian Peninsula: paleobiogeography, paleoecology and dispersal events

Abstract: The Pleistocene of the Iberian Peninsula is currently a focus of intense paleontological, archaeological and geological research. To a large extent, these inquiries are intended to decipher the ecological factors that might have conditioned early Homo dispersals into the European continent during the late Early Pleistocene. In this respect, the research carried out during the last twenty years in several areas of the Iberian Peninsula (the Guadix-Baza Basin, the Sierra de Atapuerca, the Vallparadis Section and the Banyoles-Besalu Basin) have yielded a large amount of new significant data. Here we review such data and provide for the first time a comprehensive synthesis from a faunal, geologi­cal and paleoecological perspectives, by focusing on the relationship between paleoenvironmental conditions and early human dispersals during the late Early Pleistocene in the Iberian Peninsula. In particular, the Iberian fossil record of Early to Late Villafranchian large mam­mals is synthesized, on the basis of recent publications and unpublished data collected by the authors during the last five years, in order to provide the adequate faunal and paleocological framework for understanding the factors that limited or conditioned human dispersal events.

Pleistocene rodents from the Torrent de Vallparadís section (Terrassa, northeastern Spain) and biochronological implications

Abstract: In this paper, the rodents from the composite section of Torrent de Vallparadis (Terrassa, northeastern Spain) are described, with particular emphasis on the arvicolines. Due to their wide geographical distributions and rapid evolutionary rates, arvicolines are especially useful for biostratigraphical purposes. Eight stratigraphic layers have yielded rodent remains, including representatives of the genera Mimomys, Allophaiomys, Stenocranius, Iberomys, Microtus, Arvicola, Apodemus, Eliomys, and Hystrix. The presence of different rodent species, together with the available magnetostratigraphic data, allows a precise determination of the age of each layer and a detailed correlation with other Spanish Pleistocene sites, particularly those of the Sierra de Atapuerca. The complete studied sequence ranges from the pre-Jaramillo Biharian (1.4–1.2 Ma) to the early Toringian (less than 0.6 Ma.), constituting one of the most complete sequences of the Spanish Pleistocene and covering a time span of especial ...

The primate fossil record in the Iberian Peninsula

Abstract: During the last decade, new discoveries in several Iberian basins, together with the description of previously unpublished finds, have significantly increased the recorded paleodiversity of fossil Primates (Mammalia: Euarchonta) in the Iberian Peninsula. Here we provide an updated compendium of the primate fossil record in Iberia during the Cenozoic and further summarize the changes in primate paleo­diversity through time, which are then analyzed in the light of changing climatic conditions. Thanks to favorable climatic conditions, the highest diversity of Iberian primates was reached during the Eocene, thus reflecting the radiation of both adapoids and omomyoids; only a single plesiadapiform genus is in contrast recorded in the Iberian Peninsula. Near the Eocene-Oligocene boundary, paleoclimatic changes led to a primate diversity crisis and other faunal changes, although two Iberian omomyoids survived the Grande Coupure. From the Middle Miocene onwards, catarrhine primates are recorded in the Iberian Peninsula. During the Middle and Late Miocene, they are represented by pliopithecoids and hominoids, restricted to NE Iberia. The Miocene hominoids from Iberia are of utmost significance for understanding the Eurasian hominoid radiation and its role in the origins of the great-ape-and-human clade. Following the local extinction of these taxa during the early Late Miocene, due to progressively increased seasonality and concomitant changes in plant communities, cercopithecoids are also recorded in the Iberian Peninsula from the latest Miocene through the Plio-Pleistocene, although they finally became locally extinct, whereas hominoids are again represented by fossil humans during the Pleistocene.

Taphonomic and Ecologic Information Form Bone Weathering

Abstract: Bones of recent mammals in the Amboseli Basin, southern Kenya, exhibit distinctive weathering characteristics that can be related to the time since death and to the local conditions of temperature, humidity and soil chemistry. A categorization of weathering characteristics into six stages, recognizable on descriptive criteria, provides a basis for investigation of weathering rates and processes. The time necessary to achieve each successive weathering stage has been calibrated using known-age carcasses. Most bones decompose beyond recognition in 10 to 15 yr. Bones of animals under 100 kg and juveniles appear to weather more rapidly than bones of large animals or adults. Small-scale rather than widespread environmental factors seem to have greatest influence on weathering characteristics and rates. Bone weathering is potentially valuable as evidence for the period of time represented in recent or fossil bone assemblages, in- cluding those on archeological sites, and may also be an important tool in censusing populations of animals in modern ecosystems.

A new species

Abstract: We redescribe the only previously known species of Myrsidea from bulbuls, M. pycnonoti Eichler. Sixteen new species are described; they and their type hosts are: M. phillipsi ex Pycnonotus goiavier goiavier (Scopoli), M. gieferi ex P. goiavier suluensis Mearns, M. kulpai ex P. flavescens Blyth, M. finlaysoni ex P. finlaysoni Strickland, M. kathleenae ex P. cafer (L.), M. warwicki ex Ixos philippinus (J. R. Forster), M. mcclurei ex Microscelis amaurotis (Temminck), M. zeylanici ex P. zeylanicus (Gmelin), M. plumosi ex P. plumosus Blyth, M. eutiloti ex P. eutilotus (Jardine and Selby), M. adamsae ex P. urostictus (Salvadori), M. ochracei ex Criniger ochraceus F. Moore, M. borbonici ex Hypsipetes borbonicus (J. R. Forster), M. johnsoni ex P. atriceps (Temminck), M. palmai ex C. ochraceus, and M. claytoni ex P. eutilotus. A key is provided for the identification of these 17 species.