Aragoniense

El Aragoniense is a stage of the geological time scale dedicated to Aragón defined in the vicinity of Villa Felice It began 17 million years ago and ended 11 million years ago lasting nearly 6 million years To define the Aragonese a breed of horse was chosen Horses are native to North America and Europe and they arrived in waves A second wave was the one that took place with Anquitherium which is a three-toed horse with low-crowned molars So it is very easy to distinguish layers that lack horses from those that already show this horse Anquiterium A team of Dutch researchers defined the Aragonian in the south of the Zaragoza province Due to the extraordinary richness of mammal fossils which are well-ordered temporally We are at Rambla de Vargas This is the area that Dutch researchers chose to define the Aragonian More or less what the Aragonese would be are these white and reddish colors we have all along this slope This is where all the mammal fossils that precisely define the Aragonian were found These are examples of what we often find at the sites Usually for the larger pieces what we usually find are fragments or isolated teeth There are exceptionally rich deposits in the area of Villa Felice and Aroca which there were abundant fossils of these horses and proboscideans In addition to rhinoceroses boars and various groups of horned and hornless ruminants One of the most striking events of this era is the appearance of cranial appendages Among them the most striking are probably the antlers of the deer due to their perishability And this aging we can recognize by the appearance of a pearl-like ring or rosette at the base of the stalk that regenerates However the first horns lack this ring and therefore it is thought that their expiration was occasional At the end of the Aragonian we already find deer with rosette antlers indicating that their cycle would be regular The shedding of antlers occurred during the Aragonian It is very likely related to the increase in seasonality that occurred as a result of the temperature drops Initially the climate was warmer than today and the landscape was dominated by forests The climate changed Aridity increased creating large open areas dominated by herbaceous plants and the temperature dropped Eventually humidity and forested areas returned but the temperature did not recover The temperature drop was global Animals and plants adapted to these changes The Aragonian ends when representatives of another wave arrive this time of three-toed horses also with high-crowned mules coypus El Aragoniense is further evidence of how the climate has changed over the past millions of years And how living beings are caught up in these changes It indicates a much warmer period than the present It can serve as a model for where we are headed following the current trend of global warming