Martínez Navarro, Bienvenido – ICREA Memoir 2021

Bienvenido Martínez-Navarro

Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social

Humanities

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

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

– Bartolini-Lucenti S*, Madurell-Malapeira J, Martínez-Navarro B*, Palmqvist P, Lordkipanidze D, Rook L, 2021. The early hunting dog from Dmanisi with comments on the social behaviour in Canidae and hominins. Scientific Reports, 11, 1, 13501.

– Martinez-Navarro B*, Bartolini Lucenti S., Palmqvist P., Ros-Montoya S., Madurell-Malapeira J. & Espigares M. P. 2021. A new species of dog from the Early Pleistocene site of Venta Micena (Orce, Baza basin, Spain. Comptes Rendus Palevol 20 (17), 297-314.

– Hovers E*, Gossa T, Asrat A, Niespolo E M, Resom A, Renne P R, Ekshtain R, Herzlinger G, Ketema N, Martinez-Navarro B, 2021, ‘The expansion of the Acheulian to the Southeastern Ethiopian Highlands: Insights from the new early Pleistocene site-complex of Melka Wakena’, Quaternary Science Reviews, 253, 106763.

– Ros-Montoya S*, Bartolini-Lucenti S, Espigares M P, Palmqvist P, Martínez-Navarro B*, 2021. First review of the Lyncodontini material (Mustelidae, Carnivora, Mammalia) from the Lower Pleistocene archaeo-palaeontological sites of Orce (southeastern Spain). Rivista Italiana di Paleontologia e Stratigrafia 127(1), 33-47.

– Espigares M P*, Martínez-Navarro B*, Ros-Montoya S, García-Aguilar J M, Guerra-Merchán A, Rodríguez-Gómez G, Palmqvist P, 2021. Hominins, mammoths, saber-tooths and giant hyenas in the Early Pleistocene of the Baza Basin (SE Spain). Proceedings of the workshop “Humans – Elephants Interactions: From past to present” Hannover 16-18.10.2019. Edit. G. Konidaris, V. Tourlakis, R. Barkai, K. Harvati. Tubingen University Press. Chapter 1. pp. 47-66. ISBN (Hardcover): 978-3-947251-33-9, ISBN (PDF): 978-3-947251-34-6

Selected research activities

I have done lab work at the Museum of Baza (Granada, Spain) and at the National Museum of Georgia (Tbilisi).

I have supervised the PhD of Moncef-Saïd Mtimet, and have taught “Paleontology of mammals” in the Erasmus Mundus Master on Quaternary and Prehistory, at the Universitat Rovira i Virgili (Tarragona).