Incarcal-1 Age Determination and the Late Early Pleistocene Terrestrial Record of the Iberian Peninsula

Incarcal-1 site is a rich vertebrate fossils site found in the lacustrine infill of an exokarst. This site is located close of Crespià (Catalonia, Spain) and has yielded some 2000 remains of at least 15 taxa of large mammals, including Hippopotamus antiquus. The teeth of this last species (both in enamel and dentine) have been used for a large ESR and U‐series data. Radioelement concentrations from the sediment and in situ gamma dose rate were also measured. A particularly reliable numerical age of 862 ± 52 ka is obtained. Such teeth and ages are obtained from a 3m thick succession recording sedimentation during a reversal polarity chron. By integrating paleopoalrities and numerical ages, Incarcal‐1 is dated as the latest part of the Early Pleistocene, somewhere between the younger reversal of the Jaramillo Subchron (1.01 Ma) and the Matuyama–Brunhes boundary (0.77 Ma). The obtained ages permit to compare Inarcal-1 vertebrate record with that of other Iberian localities such as Atapuerca Gran Dolina TD4‐6, and Vallparadís Station EVT7. Such correlation refine the rich fossil record between ~0.8 and ~1.0 Ma. Finally, a chronostratigraphic age constrains for the Calabrian (1.80–0.77 Ma) fossil sites of the Iberian Peninsula is also revised. A revision of the available large database permits to address the reliability of biochronology based on mammal associations in the terrestrial record of the westernmost edge of Eurasia.