Where: Portugal (39.4° N, 9.4° W)

• coordinate estimated from map

• outcrop-level geographic resolution

When: Late/Upper Pleistocene (0.1 - 0.0 Ma)

• The sedimentary infilling of the cave was excavated in the late 19th century by Delgado, J. F. N., who defined two main stratigraphic units: a Holocene unit and a Pleistocene unit. Later, Breuil, H. and Zbyszewski, G. identified at the base of the lower unit (at 6 m asl) a marine stratigraphic level, which they ascribed to the Riss-Wurm interglacial. In the ca. 8 m-thick lower unit “Areias Quaternárias” (Quaternary Sands), with 7 main "níveis ossíferos" (bone rich levels) I to VII, were recognized, several separated by a travertine and nine of them rich in well-preserved faunal bones. Contains artifacts encompassing a sequence between the Middle and Upper Paleolithic, with assemblages pointing to the Acheulian, Mousterian, Gravettian, Solutrean and Magdalenian, most of them—especially the Mousterian industries—in association with abundant and diverse faunal remains. Another age, resulting from Uranium-series dating of a bone collected from the 3th stratigraphic level (8.5-9 m asl), is 80,880 + 42, 420 – 31, 260 years, but cannot be used as a reliable chronological marker due to the large standard deviation.

• group of beds-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: cave; siliciclastic sediments

Size class: macrofossils

Collected by J.F.N. Delgado in 1880

• Repository: Geological Museum of LNEG (Laboratório Nacional de Energia e Geologia) in Lisbon.

Primary reference: S. D. Figueiredo, P. P. Cunha, F. Sousa, T. Pereira, and A. Rosa. 2017. Pleistocene birds of Gruta da Furninha (Peniche-Portugal): a paleontological and paleoenvironmental aproach. Journal of Environmental Science and Engineering A 6:502-509 [M. Clapham/M. Clapham]more details

Purpose of describing collection: general faunal/floral analysis

PaleoDB collection 197768: authorized by Matthew Clapham, entered by Matthew Clapham on 25.11.2018, edited by Mark Uhen

Creative Commons license: CC0 (CC0)