Bienvenido Martínez-Navarro

Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social

Humanities

Degree in Geology (1987) and PhD in Paleontology (1991). I work on Plio-Pleistocene large mammals and participate at different projects in Plio-Pleistocene sites around the World, been the co-leader of the Baza and Incarcal projects (Spain), and the Oued Sarrat  (Tunisia) and Engel Ela-Ramud Basin (Eritrea) projects, but I participate too in the research of Buia (Eritrea), Melka Wakena (Ethiopia), Atbara River (Sudan), `Ubeidiya, Gesher Benot Ya'aqov, and Bizat Ruhama (Israel), Dmanisi (Georgia), Argentario and Pirro Nord (Italy), and Vallonnet (France).


Research interests

I am a paleontologist working on Quaternary mammals from Europe, Asia and Africa. My main interest is to describe the ecological scenario where our ancestors, the earlier members of the genus Homo, evolving and dispersing from Africa, were able to colonize the middle latitudes of Eurasia and survive in seasonal climates during the Pleistocene times. I have developed an intense research travelling around the world to study the African origin mammals dispersing into Eurasia, and the Eurasian origin mammals dispersing into Africa, in order to describe their systematics, phylogeny, biochronology, paleobiogeography, autoecology, and their potential ecological relationships among them and with hominins. I work on fossil hyenas, sabertoothed tigers, hunting dogs, bears, elephants and mastodonts, hippos, pigs, buffaloes, antelopes, deers, giraffes, camels, monkeys and other groups.

Selected publications

- Ros-Montoya S, Palombo MR, Espigares MP, Palmqvist P & Martinez-Navarro B 2018, 'The mammoth from the archaeo-paleontological site of Huescar-1: A tile in the puzzling question of the replacement of Mammuthus meridionalis by Mammuthus trogontherii in the late Early Pleistocene of Europe', Quaternary Science Reviews, 197, 336 - 351.

- Karoui-Yaakoub N, Mtimet M-S, Bejaoui S & Martínez-Navarro B 2018, 'Paleoenvironmental reconstruction of the Pleistocene site of Oued Sarrat (NorthwesternTunisia) using mineralogical and geochemical data', Journal of Geology, Geography and Geoecology, 27(2), 316-322.

- Martínez-Navarro B 2018, 'Oldowan Scavengers Vs. Acheulian  Hunters: What Does the Faunal Record Say?', Global Journal of Archaeology and Anthropololy, 6(1): 555679.

- Martínez-Navarro B, Ros-Montoya S, Espigares M-P, Madurell-Malapeira J & Palmqvist P 2018, 'Los mamíferos del Plioceno y Pleistoceno de la Península Ibérica', Revista PH, 94, 206-249.

Selected research activities

During year 2018 I have conducted field research at the Engel Ela-Ramud basin (Eritrea), the Oued Sarrat basin (Tunisia),  and at the Spanish sites of Baza 1 (Baza-Guadix basin, Andalusia) and Incarcal (Banyles-Besalú basin,  Catalonia). I have done lab work too at the National Museum of Georgia in Tbilisi, studying the fossil collecion from the Early Pleistocene site of Dmanisi, and at the Archaeological Museum of Baza (Granada, Spain), studying the Pliocene fossil collection of Baza 1. Finally, I also have visited, and discussed with the responsibles of the research, the paleoanthropological sites of Sangiran in the Java island (Indonesia).