Search results for "Cave"

The nature of black stains in Lascaux Cave, France, as revealed by surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy

2011

We used surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy to investigate the chemical composition of the black stains threatening the rock-art paintings of Lascaux Cave, Montignac, France. The stains are mainly composed of melanin from the fungus Ochroconis sp. and the faecal pellets of the collembolan Folsomia candida. Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy is a useful technique for revealing the structure of unknown macromolecules in cultural heritage research. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Evaporite karst in Sicily

2007

Karst areas are distributed over most of Sicily. The most widespread karst rocks are carbonates, particularly limestones, but karst phenomena can also be seen in evaporites and particularly in salt mines. This report provides an overview of evaporite karst in Sicily, along with a “case history” that shows some of the evaporite karst risks to the environment. In the centre and south of Sicily, a thick sequence of Messinian evaporite rocks are subject to dissolution from meteoric and formation waters. In areas where potassium salts and rock salts are being mined, some geomorphologic changes result from the drilling of boreholes and the collapse of underground mines, thus lowering or collapsin…

The gastropod fauna of the Epipalaeolithic shell midden in the Vestibulo chamber of Nerja Cave (Málaga, southern Spain)

2011

The sedimentary record of the Vestibulo, Mina and Torca chambers in the ancient entrance of Nerja Cave (Malaga, southern Spain) developed between around 30 and 3.6 ka cal BP. The long record of human occupation shows a dominance of terrestrial snails associated with the Gravettian, with a continuation of these types in the Solutrean when marine shells begin to be introduced. During the Magdalenian, marine bivalves are dominant. Marine molluscs reach a maximum during the Epipalaeolithic, giving rise to a shell midden formed primarily by Mytilus edulis and diverse species of Patella. The Epipalaeolithic shell midden occurs in Unit 4 and can be dated to the PleistoceneeHolocene boundary. This …

Sensory performance of blind Mexican cave fish after destruction of the canal neuromasts.

1990

The Coastal Sulfuric Acid Cave System of Santa Cesarea Terme (Southern Italy)

2017

Santa Cesarea Terme in Salento is the only area in which hypogenic caves have been recognized in the Apulia region. In this spa area, the rising of sulfidic thermal waters that mix with both recent fresh infiltration waters and coastal salt water has formed four active sulfuric acid speleogenesis (SAS) caves. These caves are characterized by the typical set of sulfuric acid meso- and micromorphologies, and also by the presence of both gypsum and native sulfur. In all caves, biofilms are visible in the sulfidic thermal waters and on the cave walls.

Diagenesis of speleothems and its effect on the accuracy of 230 Th/U-ages

2014

Abstract Speleothems can be precisely dated by U-series disequilibrium methods. One basic assumption of the 230Th/U-dating method is that the system remains closed and U and Th isotopes are neither lost nor added after deposition. For stalagmites, this requirement is usually fulfilled due to their protected environment in caves. However, undersaturated drip water may lead to diagenesis of speleothem CaCO3 and altered 230Th/U-ages. Here we present a detailed petrographic investigation using thin sections and 230Th/U-ages of a stalagmite from the Riesenberghohle, northern Germany, which grew during Marine Isotope Stages 5e, c and a. The occurrence of a mosaic fabric in large parts of the stal…

2021

Abstract. Lignin oxidation products (LOPs) are widely used as vegetation proxies in climate archives, such as sediment and peat cores. The total LOP concentration, Σ 8, provides information on the abundance of vegetation, while the ratios C / V and S / V of the different LOP groups also provide information on the type of vegetation. Recently, LOP analysis has been successfully applied to speleothem archives. However, there are many open questions concerning the transport and microbial degradation of LOPs on their way from the soil into the cave system. These processes could potentially alter the original source-dependent LOP signals, in particular the C / V and S / V ratios, and thus compli…

Distinguishing between Bos and Bison petrous bones. A case study: Bovines from the des-cubierta cave (Pinilla del Valle, Madrid)

2019

This research has been supported by the financial assistance of the Spanish Society of Palaeontology ID AJISEP-2017-07142. M.A. Galindo-Pellicena was also being supported by a postdoctoral grant from the Fundacion Atapuerca. We thank the Excavation Team of the Des-Cubierta cave for their work in the fi eld, and our colleagues from the Centro Mixto UCM-ISCIII of Madrid and from the Regional Archaeological Museum of Alcalá de Henares, especially to Belén Márquez, Elena Santos, Beatrice Vacca and Abel Moclánfor their suggestions during the elaboration of the manuscript. Thanks must be extended to the Restoration Team, especially to M. Cruz Ortega, to the photographers Alfonso Dávila and Mario …

Phylogeny and biogeography of fossil and extant Microtus (Terricola) (Mammalia, Rodentia) of Sicily and the southern Italian peninsula based on curre…

2011

Abstract The fossil record of the Savi vole, Microtus ( Terricola ) savii , is analyzed in terms of morphological and morphometrical variability of the first lower molar, in order to reconstruct phylogenetic relationships between insular and mainland populations and the dispersal events. The present work gives a contribution to better understand the phylogenetic history of this taxon in Sicily and Southern Italy during the interval Middle Pleistocene – Holocene, in an attempt to reconstruct the relationships between insular and continental voles and to clarify some paleobiogeographical aspects. The morphometrical data have been acquired by traditional measurements of the first lower molar a…

Defining the Island Dwarfing Rate of an Extinct Sicilian Elephant Using Ancient DNA

2020

Evolution on islands, and the often extreme phenotypic changes associated with it, has attracted much interest from evolutionary biologists. However, measuring the rate of change of a particular phenotypic trait of extinct animals can be challenging, due to the incompleteness of the fossil record. Here, we use combined molecular and fossil evidence to define the minimum and maximum rate of dwarfing in an extinct Mediterranean dwarf elephant from Puntali Cave (Sicily). Despite the challenges associated with recovering ancient DNA from warm climates, we successfully retrieved a mitogenome from a sample with an estimated age between 147,000 and 50,000 years. Our results suggest that this speci…