Bacteria isolated from rock art paintings: the case of Atlanterra shelter (south Spain)

The Sierra de la Plate is an Aljibe yellow sandstone formation from the Ach eulian period. There are a few shelters, some of them with rock art paintin gs. The most representative one, and subjected to anthropogenic pressure, i s that of Atlanterra, situated in a residential area. This shelter contains some rock art paintings made with iron oxides. The bacteria present in the se paintings were isolated and identified using an automatic method: fatty acid methyl eaters profiling. Most of the bacteria belong to the Bacillus g enus, B. megaterium being the most abundant species. The isolated strains a re able to reduce hematite. This is significant due to the fact that Fe(III )-(hydr)oxides are the most abundant pigments in rock art. (C) 1999 Elsevie r Science B.V. All rights reserved.