AMINO-ACID CHRONOLOGY OF THE LOWER PLEISTOCENE DEPOSITS OF VENTA-MICENA (ORCE, GRANADA, ANDALUSIA, SPAIN)

This paper deals with a model adjustment for the estimation of age by means of amino acid racemization analysis. Two model families were obt ained an the basis of the different genera of molluscs analysed, and w ere applied to a palaeontological site located in the Cullar-Baza basi n: ''Venta Micena'' (Orce, Granada). The analytical results obtained f rom the study of fossil gastropods have provided a very coherent avera ge dating of 983 +/- 58 Ky, this coinciding to a large extent with the most widespread palaeontological, geological and stratigraphical dati ngs far the site. There is, however, no agreement with certain recent theories that situate Venta Micena chronologically at the Pliocene-Ple istocene boundary (ca. 1.6 My) or before. The validity of the dating f it was tested on the basis of another classical palaeontological site, Cullar-Baza, where a coherent dating of 441 +/- 27 Ky was obtained. ( C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.