European Heritage Days: Conference “When the Lot was populated by reindeer, horses and wolves”

The excavation of sinkholes is of major interest for the study of paleobiodiversity and therefore of past environments. The work carried out in the paleontological site of Igue du Gral (Sauliac-sur-Célé) for more than 20 years by an international multidisciplinary team led by J.-C. Castel (Geneva Museum) and M. Boudadi-Maligne (CNRS) has made it possible to trace the history of mammalian paleo-populations in the region over the last 30 millennia. The thousands of remains of reindeer, hares, horses, bison, choughs, wolves, deer and other furry and feathered animals have been the subject of paleontological, taphonomic, genetic and radiometric studies recently synthesized in a special volume. This conference will therefore be an opportunity to take stock of this research and to share what motivates our pursuit of this quest for the Grail today!

Conference given by Myriam BOUDADI-MALIGNE, paleozoologist at the University of Bordeaux, PACEA laboratory and Jean-Christophe CASTEL, archaeozoologist at the Natural History Museum of Geneva.