Mammals mesofauna and macrofauna from Waziers, le Bas-Terroir. Palaeontological data (2014-2015)

• Published in: Quaternaire
• Main Authors: Auguste, Patrick, Sévêque, Noémie, Louguet, Sophie
• Other Authors: Évolution, Écologie et Paléontologie (Evo-Eco-Paleo) - UMR 8198 (Evo-Eco-Paléo (EEP)), Université de Lille-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Archéologie et histoire ancienne : Méditerranée - Europe (ARCHIMEDE), Université de Strasbourg (UNISTRA)-Université de Haute-Alsace (UHA) Mulhouse - Colmar (Université de Haute-Alsace (UHA))-Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication (MCC)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Histoire, Archéologie et Littérature des Mondes Anciens - UMR 8164 (HALMA), Université de Lille-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Ministère de la Culture (MC)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: French
• Published: HAL CCSD 2022
• Subjects: Saalian; Saalien; Eemien; Mammifères; Paléoécologie; Biochronologie; Eemian; Mammals; Paleoecology; Biochronology; [SDU.STU.PG]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences/Paleontology; Giganteus; Découverte; Ursus arctos
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-03926544; https://hal.science/hal-03926544/document; https://hal.science/hal-03926544/file/Auguste%20et%20al%202022,%20pal%C3%A9ontologie%20Waziers.pdf; https://doi.org/10.4000/quaternaire.17326

International audience Excavations carried out at the Le Bas-Terroir site in Waziers (Nord) in 2014 and 2015 led to the discovery of faunal remainsof mammals, birds and a reptile. They are unevenly distributed within the stratigraphic sequence: in the Final-Saalian Unit 4 (US4) with the horse as the only taxon present; Unit V contemporaneous with the Eemian where the corpus is quite diversified; then Units 6 (US6) and 7 (US7) of the early Weichselian showing a fauna quite close to that of the previous unit. The aurochs (Bos primigenius) is the best represented species, followed by the roe deer (Capreolus capreolus), the beaver (Castor fiber), the Achenheim horse (Equus achenheimensis), and the grassland rhinoceros (Stephanorhinus hemitoechus). The red deer (Cervus elaphus), the brown bear (Ursus arctos), the megaceros (Megaloceros giganteus), the otter (cf. Aonyx antiqua) and perhaps the fallow deer (cf. Dama dama) are more anecdotal. The horse of Unit IV shows an affinity with the horses of the late Saalian transitional phases (MIS 7 and 6) and is therefore perfectly adapted to the environmental conditions that are evident elsewhere on the site. The Eemian peat fauna of US5 is clearly temperate in affinity and forest-dominated, but without the typical species (wild boar and fallow deer) found in the contemporary Caours (Somme) site in levels 3 to 1 corresponding to the optimum of this interglacial. The last two fossiliferous units, US6 and US7, provide a fauna that is fairly comparable to that of the underlying unit. The Waziers site thus plays an essential role in better understanding the dynamics of mammalian populations in northern France at the end of the Chibanian and the beginning of the Upper Pleistocene. Les fouilles menées sur le site Le Bas-Terroir à Waziers (Nord) en 2014 et 2015 ont permis la découverte de vestiges fauniques de mammifères, d'oiseaux et d'un reptile. Ils se répartissent de manière inégale au sein de la séquence stratigraphique : dans l'unité 4 (US4) fin-saalienne avec le cheval ...