Youngest agamid lizards from Western Europe (Sierra de Quibas, Spain, late Early Pleistocene)

摘要

Here we report a new Early Pleistocene record of agamid lizards (Agamidae indet.) from the Spanish locality of Quibas (ca. 1.3-1.0 Ma), which represents the latest evidence of the family in Western Europe. Up to now, the family Agamidae was considered to have disappeared in this region at 1.8 Ma. This new record implies the survival of agamid lizards for a large part of the Early Pleistocene in the southernmost Iberian Peninsula, probably because of favourable climatic and environmental conditions. Consequently, the formerly detected Pliocene / Pleistocene boundary is no longer recognisable in the evolution of the herpetological assemblages in Western Europe.