An international team of researchers published a study in the journal Nature Communications, revealing new insights into life during the Ice Age on the Iberian Peninsula. The study described the retrieval of human and animal DNA from 25,000-year-old sediments in the El Mirón cave, located in Ramales de la Victoria, Cantabria.
For the first time, researchers managed to recover DNA from sediment at a Cantabrian site. The extracted genetic material was compared with that of La Dama Roja (The Red Lady), a woman whose remains, approximately 19,000 years old, were found in the same cave. Comparisons were also made with samples from other sites, including the Malalmuerzo caves in Granada and La Riera in Asturias.
"The methodology employed has yielded surprising results, demonstrating that the preservation in this Cantabrian cave is among the best in Europe," said Ana Marín Arroyo, director of the EvoAdapta group and professor at the University of Cantabria, according to El Diario Montañes. She added that the research led to the identification of animal species absent in the fossil record, such as the alpine wolf (a type of wild dog), the mammoth, and the hyena, along with some herbivores and carnivores not previously found at the site.
Despite the absence of bones or teeth from certain types of herbivores and carnivores, genetic analyses of the cave's sediments allowed the identification of animals and humans throughout the Solutrean period. This discovery supports the hypothesis that the Iberian Peninsula served as a climatic refuge during the Ice Age, reinforcing the notion of its stability during this period.
The research team includes Pere Gelabert and Ron Pinhasi from the University of Vienna, and Lawrence Straus from the University of New Mexico, as noted by Diario de Sevilla.
Genetic data suggest that prehistoric leopards from the El Mirón cave are more closely related to those found in the Caucasus before the Ice Age than to those in Central Europe, according to El Diario Montañes.
"The human populations that inhabited the El Mirón area during the glaciation were remarkably stable," according to a statement from the University of Cantabria.
This article was written in collaboration with generative AI company Alchemiq