The reindeer tooth fossil is altering the climatic narrative of the Iberian Peninsula. Recovered in the Atapuerca mountains of Burgos, Spain, the tooth, dated between 243,000 and 300,000 years ago, is the oldest evidence of glacial fauna on the peninsula. It lay in the same sedimentary layer as a fragmentary human skull and stone tools, indicating that reindeer and early toolmakers occupied the site at the same time.
Scientists from the National Museum of Natural Sciences (MNCN-CSIC), the National Research Center of Human Evolution (CENIEH) and the Catalan Institute of Human Palaeoecology and Social Evolution (IPHES-CERCA) led the study, concluding that glacial fauna ranged far beyond the Pyrenean and Cantabrian mountains during Middle Pleistocene cold spells.
“Finding a reindeer at this latitude shows that extreme cold affected Iberian ecosystems earlier and more intensely than we thought,” said Jan van der Made, a researcher at the MNCN-CSIC. “The fossil helps refine the site’s dating and demonstrates the intensity of the glacial periods that shaped life on the peninsula,” said van der Made.
The discovery places Atapuerca within the Mammoth Steppe, a grassland that once extended from western Europe to Siberia and supported woolly rhinoceroses, reindeer and other cold-adapted species. Related remains have been found as far south as Madrid and Granada, showing how deeply glacial conditions penetrated southern Europe.
“This work allows us to trace the movement of glacial fauna and to assess how human groups adapted during the Middle Pleistocene, roughly 800,000 to 125,000 years ago,” said Ignacio Aguilar Lazagabaster of CENIEH.
Laboratory analysis confirmed the tooth belonged to the genus Rangifer. The team noted that while many glacial species retreated northward during warmer phases, Iberia also served as a refuge for warmth-loving animals, revealing a complex biogeographic history. By documenting a cold-adapted ungulate in Burgos more than 250,000 years ago, the researchers argued that reindeer ranged across the peninsula, and further excavations may fine-tune the timeline of these climatic swings and the responses of early humans.
The preparation of this article relied on a news-analysis system.