VALLES PENEDES

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Vallés Penedés, Spain

11.9 Ma

Year One of the Vallés-Penedés project, led by Drs. S. Moyá-Solá and M. Köhler focused on the area of Hostalets de Pierola, Spain. This region has yielded hominoids from a middle to upper Miocene sequence. Efforts focused on excavation and survey of Barranc de Can Vila 1 and the Riera de Claret. Paleomagnetic samples were taken and sites were excavated. Several new sites and localities were discovered, and collected fossils included a new middle Miocene hominoid, Pierolapithecus catalaunicus from Barranc de Can Vila 1, was announced in the November 17, 2004 issue of Science. Recent work at locality Abocabor de Can Mata yielded a male partial face with a mandible of a previously undescribed fossil hominid, Anoiapithecus brevirostris gen. et sp. nov from the Middle Miocene, allowing testing of the hypothesis that Kenyapithecenae is a sister taxon of hominids (PNAS, 2009).

Image A.P.