The excavation team at the Quibas site (Abanilla) has discovered the most complete and oldest Iberian lynx skeleton found so far in the world and which lived in the Region approximately 1.1 million years ago, according to sources from the regional Government. it’s a statement.
The Minister of the Environment, Universities, Research and Mar Menor, Juan María Vázquez, accompanied by the coordinator of the Life LynxConnect project, Francisco Javier Salcedo, and the mayor of Abanilla, José Antonio Blasco, visited the site this Friday to learn about the evolution of the work carried out by a team of ten people, among which there are two students from the University of Murcia, and under the direction of the paleontologist Pedro Piñero.
Vázquez has highlighted “the richness and good state of conservation of the fifty fossils recovered since 2021 and to date of this emblematic species of the Iberian Peninsula at the site”, which correspond to the front and rear limbs, vertebrae and part of the skull.
Likewise, he has announced that the excavations continue and that new remains continue to be found, including numerous ribs, different parts of the skull and vertebrae. “All this will help us complete the skeleton of one of the first known specimens of Iberian lynx,” stressed the counselor, who revealed that “one of the first conclusions that his study shows is that the Iberian lynx was something larger than the lynxes we know today.”
The head of the Environment has pointed out that this research work “has exceptional importance, since the remains found and preserved from the oldest populations of this feline are very scarce, and also to understand the steps of this species in the Region. as well as its evolution.”
“The Iberian lynx has always been a symbolic species of the Region and now that we are discovering its deep roots with our land, the project to reintroduce the lynx into the Region becomes even more important so that it becomes one more among us,” he said. highlighted the counselor Juan María Vázquez.
Its presence in this site confirms that the emblematic feline, now reintroduced in the Region of Murcia, already populated the Spanish southeast a million years ago and that, since then, it has been inhabiting the area uninterruptedly until its extinction at the end of the past. twentieth century.
“The discovery of the Iberian lynx is the most important at the Quibas site,” noted the counselor, although he added that “it is one of the 80 different species that have been found in this enclave and that allows us to learn much more about the “wealth and evolution of our natural heritage.” These include macaques, rhinoceroses, saber-toothed tigers, ancestors of wolves, African wild dogs, bison, horses and musk oxen, among many others.
