Lateral heterogeneity in rodent samples of the T1 level from the Middle Miocene of Somosaguas (Pozuelo de Alarcon, Madrid)

Rodent associations are habitually used in palaeoenviromental inferences. Assuming lateral homogeneity in fossil content within stratigraphic levels, sometimes these inferences are performed using the relative abundances of species included in such associations. Nevertheless, this homogeneity has never been checked empirically in species proportions inside the same fossiliferous level. Because of that, in this work we compared two samples from T1 level of the Somosaguas fossil site (middle Miocene), which were separated laterally by 30 m. Although both samples show identical faunal composition from a qualitative viewpoint, analysis realized through Monte Carlo randomizations indicated the existence of significant differences in relative abundances of different species between the two samples. These results could be due to 1) different sedimentary behaviour of dental pieces from different species due to differences in size; 2) small size of sediment samples combined with high density of fossil remains in level T1 of Somosaguas; 3) differential time averaging related to presence of successive alluvial fans, associated to population changes due to environmental changes during the Aragonian. Our results show the need of cautiousness when palaeoenviromental inferences are based on relative abundances of micromammalian species.