Occurrence of whale barnacles in Nerja Cave (Málaga, southern Spain): Indirect evidence of whale consumption by humans in the Upper Magdalenian

Esteban Álvarez-Fernández*, René Pierre Carriol, Jesús F. Jordá, J. Emili Aura, Bárbara Avezuela, Ernestina Badal, Yolanda Carrión, Javier García-Guinea, Adolfo Maestro, Juan V. Morales, Guillém Perez, Manuel Perez-Ripoll, María J. Rodrigo, James E. Scarff, M. Paz Villalba, Rachel Wood

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    31 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    A total of 167 plates of two whale barnacle species (Tubicinella major Lamarck, 1802 and Cetopirus complanatus Mörch, 1853) have been found in the Upper Magdalenian layers of Nerja Cave, Mina Chamber (Maro, Málaga, southern Spain). This is the first occurrence of these species in a prehistoric site. Both species are specific to the southern right whale Eubalena australis, today endemic in the Southern Hemisphere. Because of Antarctic sea-ice expansion during the Last Glacial Period, these whales could have migrated to the Northern Hemisphere, and reached southern Spain. Whale barnacles indicate that maritime-oriented forager human groups found stranded whales on the coast and, because of the size and weight of the large bones, transported only certain pieces (skin, blubber and meat) to the caves where they were consumed.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)163-169
    Number of pages7
    JournalQuaternary International
    Volume337
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 9 Jul 2014

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