@article {308787,
	title = {Discontinuity of human presence at Atapuerca during the early Middle Pleistocene: a matter of ecological competition?},
	journal = {PLoS One},
	volume = {9},
	year = {2014},
	note = {http://www.plosone.org/article/info\%3Adoi\%2F10.1371\%2Fjournal.pone.0101938},
	month = {2014},
	pages = {e101938},
	abstract = {<p>Increasing evidence suggests that the European human settlement is older than 1.2 Ma. However, there is a fierce debate about the continuity or discontinuity of the early human settlement of Europe. In particular, evidence of human presence in the interval 0.7-0.5 Ma is scarce in comparison with evidence for the previous and later periods. Here, we present a case study in which the environmental conditions at Sierra de Atapuerca in the early Middle Pleistocene, a period without evidence of human presence, are compared with the conditions in the previous period, for which a relatively intense human occupation is documented. With this objective in mind, the available resources for a human population and the intensity of competition between secondary consumers during the two periods are compared using a mathematical model. The Gran Dolina site TD8 level, dated to 0.7-0.6 Ma, is taken as representative of the period during which Atapuerca was apparently not occupied by humans. Conditions at TD8 are compared with those of the previous period, represented by the TD6-2 level, which has yielded abundant evidence of intense human occupation. The results show that survival opportunities for a hypothetical human population were lower at TD8 than they were at TD6-2. Increased resource competition between secondary consumers arises as a possible explanation for the absence of human occupation at Atapuerca in the early Middle Pleistocene.</p>},
	keywords = {Algorithms, Animals, Biomass, Competitive Behavior, Ecological and Environmental Phenomena, Ecosystem, Europe, Food, Fossils, Hominidae, Humans, Models, Theoretical, Population Dynamics, Time Factors},
	issn = {1932-6203},
	doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0101938},
	url = {http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25054305},
	author = {Rodr{\'\i}guez-G{\'o}mez, Guillermo and Mateos, Ana and Mart{\'\i}n-Gonz{\'a}lez, Jes{\'u}s {\'A}ngel and Blasco, Ruth and Rosell, Jordi and Rodr{\'\i}guez, Jes{\'u}s}
}
