A Review on the Latest Early Pleistocene Carnivoran Guild from the Vallparadís Section (NE Iberia)

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

This paper presents a detailed and insightful review of the Early Pleistocene carnivoran guild from the Vallparadís Section in northeastern Iberia. The authors provide a comprehensive analysis of the paleoenvironmental changes, faunal transitions, and evolutionary dynamics during a critical period in Quaternary climatic history. The integration of various analytical methods, such as Bootstrapping Cluster Analysis (BCA) and Non-metric Multidimensional Scaling (NMDS), adds robustness to the findings.

 

Overall, I believe this paper makes a significant contribution to the understanding of Early Pleistocene carnivoran guild dynamics and the impact of climatic transitions on faunal communities. However, there are several aspects that could be improved to enhance the quality and impact of the study.

 

1. Introduction: Please clearly state the research questions and objectives. For example, specify whether the study aims to understand the impact of climatic transitions on carnivoran diversity or to reconstruct the paleoecology of the Vallparadís Section. I suggest the authors provide a brief overview of the significance of the Early-Middle Pleistocene Transition (EMPT) and its known impacts on European faunal communities.

 

2. M&M: The study's reliance on specific analytical methods may introduce biases. Please consider discussing the limitations of BCA and NMDS. For example, explain how the choice of specific reference localities and the quality of their fossil records might affect the clustering results.

 

3. It seems that there are gaps in the fossil record, particularly for the period between 1.8 and 1.2 Ma. I expect more discussion on how these gaps limit the study's conclusions and how potential future excavations or research in underrepresented regions could fill these gaps.

 

4. I suggest enhancing the discussion of climatic changes around 1.2 to 0.6 Ma. For instance, detail the evidence for shifts from open grasslands to more wooded environments, citing specific layers and findings from Vallparadís.

 

5. For each species, please provide a more detailed account of their morphological adaptations and ecological roles. For instance, the author could discuss the social behavior of Homotherium crenatidens in light of recent fossil DNA analyses and compare its adaptations with those of Panthera spelaea fossilis.

 

6. Please address interspecific competition and predation explicitly. For example, analyze the potential competition between Pachycrocuta brevirostris and early hominins based on taphonomic evidence from Vallparadís.

 

7. Please discuss how the carnivoran guild at Vallparadís reflects broader trends in Pleistocene Europe, such as the decline of Villafranchian species and the rise of African immigrants. Also, please propose specific future research directions, such as targeted isotopic analyses to understand dietary shifts or further excavations to fill temporal gaps.

Author Response

Reviewer #1

This paper presents a detailed and insightful review of the Early Pleistocene carnivoran guild from the Vallparadís Section in northeastern Iberia. The authors provide a comprehensive analysis of the paleoenvironmental changes, faunal transitions, and evolutionary dynamics during a critical period in Quaternary climatic history. The integration of various analytical methods, such as Bootstrapping Cluster Analysis (BCA) and Non-metric Multidimensional Scaling (NMDS), adds robustness to the findings.

Overall, I believe this paper makes a significant contribution to the understanding of Early Pleistocene carnivoran guild dynamics and the impact of climatic transitions on faunal communities. However, there are several aspects that could be improved to enhance the quality and impact of the study.

 

1. Introduction: Please clearly state the research questions and objectives. For example, specify whether the study aims to understand the impact of climatic transitions on carnivoran diversity or to reconstruct the paleoecology of the Vallparadís Section. I suggest the authors provide a brief overview of the significance of the Early-Middle Pleistocene Transition (EMPT) and its known impacts on European faunal communities.

 

Thanks, we included few lines according to reviewer’s suggestion.

 

2. M&M: The study's reliance on specific analytical methods may introduce biases. Please consider discussing the limitations of BCA and NMDS. For example, explain how the choice of specific reference localities and the quality of their fossil records might affect the clustering results.

 

As in previous works with similar analyses [27,28], we selected localities with accepted chronologies and with a consistent number of carnivorans recorded in order to avoid biased results. We introduced few words clarifying this topic following reviewer’s suggestion.

 

3. It seems that there are gaps in the fossil record, particularly for the period between 1.8 and 1.2 Ma. I expect more discussion on how these gaps limit the study's conclusions and how potential future excavations or research in underrepresented regions could fill these gaps.

 

The study is based on the Vallparadís section (1.2-0.6 Ma) so outside the potential gap referred by the reviewer. Nonetheless, there are several localities studied by the authors referred to this specific chronological interval such as:  Dmanisi, Upper Valdarno, Farneta, Venta Micena, Pirro Nord, Barranco León, Fuente Nueva 3, Apollonia, etc. So, despite more information is always desirable for draw the conclusions displayed in the present ms. we think the reported evidence is sound.

 

4. I suggest enhancing the discussion of climatic changes around 1.2 to 0.6 Ma. For instance, detail the evidence for shifts from open grasslands to more wooded environments, citing specific layers and findings from Vallparadís.

 

This discussion is outside the scope of this present work, we present results on large mammals, unfortunately not on paleoclimatology. The environmental background of the Vallparadís Section is perfectly known from previous publications [10,16] and summarized in the introductory section where we discussed the different layers of the Vallparadís Section according to its paleoenvironment and vegetation cover.

 

5. For each species, please provide a more detailed account of their morphological adaptations and ecological roles. For instance, the author could discuss the social behavior of Homotherium crenatidens in light of recent fossil DNA analyses and compare its adaptations with those of Panthera spelaea fossilis.

 

We follow the reviewer’s suggestions adding some lines for each species regarding their morphological adaptations and ecological roles during the Calabrian.

 

6. Please address interspecific competition and predation explicitly. For example, analyze the potential competition between Pachycrocuta brevirostris and early hominins based on taphonomic evidence from Vallparadís.

 

This is outside the scope of the present ms. because this discussion and evidence was provided in a detailed paper we published some years ago [22] on where we presented all the data on the taphonomic evidence regarding Pachycrocuta. It is important to highlight that no human presence at Vallparadís Section can be undoubtfully evidenced since nowadays. We wrote a paper also regarding the no record on human activity which we not included for not enlarge the list of self-citations:

 

Madurell-Malapeira, J., Alba, D.M., Minwer-Barakat, R., Aurell-Garrido, J. And Moyà-Solà, S., 2012. Early human dispersals into the Iberian Peninsula: A comment on and. Journal of Human Evolution, 62(1), pp.169-173.

 

7. Please discuss how the carnivoran guild at Vallparadís reflects broader trends in Pleistocene Europe, such as the decline of Villafranchian species and the rise of African immigrants. Also, please propose specific future research directions, such as targeted isotopic analyses to understand dietary shifts or further excavations to fill temporal gaps.

 

Thanks to the reviewer for this interesting observation. We included few lines according to reviewer’s suggestion in section 4.3.

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Madurell-Malapeira and colleagues present an article titled “A Review on the Latest Early Pleistocene Carnivoran Guild from the Vallparadís Section (NE Iberia)”.

The Abstract is adequate. The Introduction is divided into Paleoenvironemtnal background, where a brief overview of pieces of evidence is presented, demonstrating the relevance of the EMPT understanding; The EMPT Transition carnivoran guild is then mentioned in a concise but informative way; The Vallparadís Section is presented regarding stratigraphy, chronology, and palaeoenvironment. This introductory part lays the foundation for the critical understanding of the remaining parts of the paper and its relevance.

Materials and Methods start by mentioning the samples under discussion, then describe the statistical tests used (BCA, NMDS). Results are presented according to different Felids, Hyaenids, Canids, Ursids, and Mustelids. A last sub-section on the Vallparadís guild structure in comparison to other Early Pleistocene guilds shows the results of the statistical tests conducted. The Discussion focuses on the ecological and taxonomical comparison of the Vallparadís sample, followed by placing this guild in the Iberian and Eurasian contexts, while discussing the data, raising new perspectives and stating the current issues. Finally, the Conclusions sum up this evidence.

The paper is scientifically sound, with a strong statistical discussion of the data. The review of pieces of evidence and their discussion at different scales demonstrates the deep knowledge of the authors on these topics. The tables/images are also mostly well prepared, even if some issues can be raised (see below). The bibliography is comprehensive and updated as needed in an article of this type.

This is a relevant addition to scholarly literature that deserves publication, easily being a highly citable synthesis of available evidence. The fact that some issues are raised during the data presentation and discussion, and future research is pointed out demonstrates the relevance of this broad approach. Minor issues mostly regarding the English language and a few suggestions are made to make this paper readable to a wider audience. Congratulations to the authors.

 

- Add a map with the main sites discussed (eg. from lines 124-128).

- I advise adding an image (drawing and/or photographs) accompanying Table 1 regarding the geological layers of the Vallparadís section.

- Line 142. “in few cases revised and updated”. Which cases?

- Line 262. Homotherium

- Line 331. 0.6

- Line 333-334. Lynx issiodorensis

- Line 383. taphocenosis

- Line 474. from

- Line 487. “Wolf event”

- Line 507. have

- Line 542. Trinchera

- Figure 4. Please put this Figure after 3.4.1.

- Line 653. hyperherbivory

- Line 674. Double-check/rephrase

- Lines 687-688. Double-check/rephrase

- Line 702. Vallparadís

- Line 743. (e.g. Canis

- Line 847-848. Double-check/rephrase

- Line 885. third metatarsal 

- Line 939. species

- Supplementary Table 1. Indicate the acronyms of sites in the caption and add the needed bibliography.

Comments on the Quality of English Language

Please see comments and suggestions.

Author Response

Reviewer #2

Madurell-Malapeira and colleagues present an article titled “A Review on the Latest Early Pleistocene Carnivoran Guild from the Vallparadís Section (NE Iberia)”.

The Abstract is adequate. The Introduction is divided into Paleoenvironemtnal background, where a brief overview of pieces of evidence is presented, demonstrating the relevance of the EMPT understanding; The EMPT Transition carnivoran guild is then mentioned in a concise but informative way; The Vallparadís Section is presented regarding stratigraphy, chronology, and palaeoenvironment. This introductory part lays the foundation for the critical understanding of the remaining parts of the paper and its relevance.

Materials and Methods start by mentioning the samples under discussion, then describe the statistical tests used (BCA, NMDS). Results are presented according to different Felids, Hyaenids, Canids, Ursids, and Mustelids. A last sub-section on the Vallparadís guild structure in comparison to other Early Pleistocene guilds shows the results of the statistical tests conducted. The Discussion focuses on the ecological and taxonomical comparison of the Vallparadís sample, followed by placing this guild in the Iberian and Eurasian contexts, while discussing the data, raising new perspectives and stating the current issues. Finally, the Conclusions sum up this evidence.

The paper is scientifically sound, with a strong statistical discussion of the data. The review of pieces of evidence and their discussion at different scales demonstrates the deep knowledge of the authors on these topics. The tables/images are also mostly well prepared, even if some issues can be raised (see below). The bibliography is comprehensive and updated as needed in an article of this type.

This is a relevant addition to scholarly literature that deserves publication, easily being a highly citable synthesis of available evidence. The fact that some issues are raised during the data presentation and discussion, and future research is pointed out demonstrates the relevance of this broad approach. Minor issues mostly regarding the English language and a few suggestions are made to make this paper readable to a wider audience. Congratulations to the authors.

 

We thank the reviewer for his warm comments

 

- Add a map with the main sites discussed (eg. from lines 124-128)

 

We added a new Figure S2 on the geographical location of the studied sites.

 

- I advise adding an image (drawing and/or photographs) accompanying Table 1 regarding the geological layers of the Vallparadís section.

We added Figure S1 with the Stratigraphic scheme of the Vallparadís Composed Section following reviewer’s suggestion.

 

- Line 142. “in few cases revised and updated”. Which cases?

We updated the faunal lists on the sites on where we are working like the Vallparadís Section, Pirro Nord, La Boella, Dmanisi, etc.. in other few sites like Gran Dolina or Sima del Elefante we uniformized the taxonomy for avoid biased results according to the most accepted taxonomical designations for several species (e.g. Ursus deningeri instead Ursus dolinensis). The made amends are clearly visible in Table S1.

 

- Line 262. Homotherium

Corrected

 

- Line 331. 0.6

Corrected

 

- Line 333-334. Lynx issiodorensis

Corrected

 

- Line 383. Taphocenosis

Corrected

 

- Line 474. From

Corrected

 

- Line 487. “Wolf event”

Corrected

 

- Line 507. Have

Corrected

 

- Line 542. Trinchera

Corrected

 

- Figure 4. Please put this Figure after 3.4.1.

Corrected

 

- Line 653. Hyperherbivory4

Corrected

 

- Line 674. Double-check/rephrase

Corrected

 

- Lines 687-688. Double-check/rephrase

Corrected

 

- Line 702. Vallparadís

Corrected

 

- Line 743. (e.g. Canis

Corrected

 

- Line 847-848. Double-check/rephrase

Corrected

 

- Line 885. Third metatarsal 

Corrected

 

- Line 939. Species

Corrected

 

- Supplementary Table 1. Indicate the acronyms of sites in the caption and add the needed bibliography.

Added