The El Salt site (Alcoi, Alicante, Spain) is one of the latest Neanderthal sites in the south-eastern Iberian Peninsula. The disappearance of this human group is controversial and needs detailed studies from different research areas. Taphonomy is essential to establish how representative is a fossil assemblage of the past living organisms that produced it and to interpret the formation process of the fossil site. In the case of El Salt, we have analyzed the micromammal assemblages of Units X and V, which contain fossils of Neanderthals and/or evidence of their activity. In contrast with previous identifications of the little owl (Athene noctua), our detailed taphonomic study shown here allows us to conclude that the main predator involved in the production of the micromammal assemblages was the European eagle owl (Bubo bubo). This is an opportunistic predator whose feeding preferences and behavior reflect the abundance of local micromammalian species, which can therefore provide a representation of past ecosystems near El Salt. The taphonomic information provided by this study also indicates the absence of transport and reworking processes, and reinforces previous paleoecological interpretations, suggesting an increase of aridity at the top of El Salt sequence that coincided with the local disappearance of Neanderthals.

中文翻译：

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小型哺乳动物埋葬学对 El Salt 遗址（西班牙东南部阿尔科伊）最后尼安德特人占领的贡献

El Salt 遗址（西班牙阿利坎特阿尔科伊）是伊比利亚半岛东南部最新的尼安德特人遗址之一。这个人类群体的消失是有争议的，需要不同研究领域的详细研究。埋藏学对于确定产生它的过去生物的化石组合的代表性以及解释化石遗址的形成过程至关重要。在 El Salt 的案例中，我们分析了 Unit X 和 V 的微型哺乳动物组合，其中包含尼安德特人的化石和/或它们活动的证据。与之前对小猫头鹰的识别相比（雅典娜夜曲），我们在这里展示的详细的埋藏学研究使我们能够得出结论，参与生产微型哺乳动物组合的主要捕食者是欧洲雕鸮（腹股沟肿块）。这是一种机会主义捕食者，其摄食偏好和行为反映了当地微型哺乳动物物种的丰富性，因此可以提供埃尔盐附近过去生态系统的代表。这项研究提供的埋藏信息还表明没有运输和改造过程，并加强了先前的古生态学解释，表明 El Salt 序列顶部的干旱增加与尼安德特人的局部消失相吻合。