Submerged speleothems and sea level reconstructions: a global overview and new results from the Mediterranean Sea
This study presents a global overview of the submerged speleothems used to reconstruct paleo sea levels and reports new results from two stalactites collected in the Mediterranean Sea. Coastal cave deposits significantly contributed to the understanding of global and regional sea-level variations during the Middle and Late Quaternary. The studied speleothems cover the last 1.4 Myr and focused mainly on Marine Isotope Stages (MIS) 1, 2, 3, 5.1, 5.3, 5.5, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3 and 7.5. The results indicate that submerged speleothems represent extraordinary archives that can provide detailed information on former sea-level changes. The two stalactites collected in the central Mediterranean Sea, at Fa…
ESR/U-series chronology of early Neanderthal occupations at Cova Negra (Valencia, Spain)
Abstract The spatiotemporal repartition of Neanderthal populations throughout the late Middle and early Upper Pleistocene is of great interest for our understanding of human evolution. Establishing a reliable chronology for human-bearing layers from prehistoric sites is thus essential for the study of Neanderthal population dynamics prior to modern human arrival in Europe. Cova Negra (Valencia, Spain) is one of the richest sites documenting Neanderthal fossil bones in the Iberian Peninsula (Arsuaga et al., 1989, 2007; Villaverde et al., 2014). The stratigraphic sequence includes 15 Middle Palaeolithic layers. Among them, four were dated by the ESR/U-series dating method on enamel from six h…