Bienvenido Martínez Navarro

Bienvenido Martínez Navarro

Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social

Humanities

Degree in Geology (1987) and PhD in Paleontology (1991). I work on Neogene-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, Orce and Cueva Victoria in Spain.

Research interests

I am a paleontologist working on Plio-Pleistocene 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

- Martínez-Navarro B*, Gossa T*, Carotenuto F, Bartolini-Lucenti S, Palmqvist P, Asrat A, Figueirido B, Rook L, Niespolo E, Renne PR, Herzlinger G & Hovers E* 2023. 'The earliest Ethiopian wolf: implications for the species evolution and its future survival'. Communications Biology 6, 530. 
- Espigares MP*, Palmqvist , Rodríguez‑Ruiz MD, Ros‑Montoya S, Pérez‑Ramos A, Rodríguez‑Gómez G, Guerra‑Merchán A, García‑Aguilar JM, Granados A, Campaña I, Martínez‑Navarro B* 2023, 'Sharing food with hyenas: a latrine of Pachycrocuta brevirostris
 
- Burjachs F, Karoui-Yaakoub N, Expósito I, Mtimet M-S, Amri L & Martínez-Navarro B 2023, ‘Palaeoenvironmental features of the early Middle Pleistocene site of Wadi Sarrat in NW Tunisia (Northern Africa)’. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology, vol. 317, 104972.
- Fidalgo D, Rosas A, Bartolini‑Lucenti S, Boisserie J-R, Pandolfi L, Martínez‑Navarro B, Palmqvist P, Rook L, Madurell‑Malapeira J, 2023, 'Increase on environmental seasonality through the European Early Pleistocene inferred from dental enamel hypoplasia', Scientific Reports, 13, 1, 16941.
- Pandolfi L, Martino R, Belvedere M, Martínez-Navarro B, Medin T, Libsekal Y & Rook L, 2023, 'The latest Early Pleistocene hippopotami from the human-bearing locality of Buia (Eritrea)', Quaternary Science Reviews 308, 108039.
- Palmqvist P, Rodríguez-Gómez G, Martínez-Navarro B, et al. 2023, 'Déjà vu: On the use of meat resources by sabretoothcats, hominins, and hyaenas', in the Early Pleistocene site of Fuente Nueva 3 (Guadix-Baza Depression, SE Spain), Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, 15:17, pp. 1-31.

Selected research activities

I have been doing excavations in Baza (Spain) and Engel Ela (Eritrea), and studying the fossil carnivores from Dmanisi (Georgia). I also co-supervised two Master Thesis.