Archaeologists working at the El Camp dels Ninots site near the town of Caldes de Malavella (Girona), have found the skeletons of a tapir and a bovid which they believe to be 3.3 million years old.
The discovery has been described by experts as "very important" because it will provide information on the ecological environment at the time.
The excavation was directed by the Catalan Institute of Human Paleontology and Social Evolution and the skeletons of the tapir and the bovid are complete and undamaged.
The co-director of this work, Gerard Campeny, stressed the importance of having found the skeleton of a tapir, as the remains of these animals are usually only found in South America and Asia.
The tapir is a Perissodactyla which disappeared from Europe in the early Pleistocene period, at the time of the first human occupation of the continent.
The discovery of the bovid makes the Camp dels Ninots site the archaeological site with the largest European collection of fossils of this species.
This animal is an artiodactyl that appeared in Europe eighteen million years ago.
This year's excavations began at the beginning of May and will run until the end of the month and involve a dozen people, including students and researchers from different countries such as Spain, France, Algeria, Armenia and Greece.
Source: ThinkSpain [May 19, 2011]
The discovery has been described by experts as "very important" because it will provide information on the ecological environment at the time.
The excavation was directed by the Catalan Institute of Human Paleontology and Social Evolution and the skeletons of the tapir and the bovid are complete and undamaged.
The co-director of this work, Gerard Campeny, stressed the importance of having found the skeleton of a tapir, as the remains of these animals are usually only found in South America and Asia.
The tapir is a Perissodactyla which disappeared from Europe in the early Pleistocene period, at the time of the first human occupation of the continent.
The discovery of the bovid makes the Camp dels Ninots site the archaeological site with the largest European collection of fossils of this species.
This animal is an artiodactyl that appeared in Europe eighteen million years ago.
This year's excavations began at the beginning of May and will run until the end of the month and involve a dozen people, including students and researchers from different countries such as Spain, France, Algeria, Armenia and Greece.
Source: ThinkSpain [May 19, 2011]