Salari, L.

We present a combined geomorphological and biochronological study aimed at providing age constraints to the deposits forming a wide paleo-surface in the coastal area of the Tyrrhenian Sea, south of Anzio promontory (central Italy). We review the faunal assemblage recovered in Campoverde, evidencing the occurrence of the modern fallow deer subspecies Dama dama dama, which in peninsular Italy is not present before MIS 5e, providing a post-quem terminus of 125 ka for the deposit hosting the fossil remains. The geomorphological reconstruction shows that Campoverde is located within the highest of three paleosurfaces progressively declining towards the present coast, at average elevations of 36, 26 and 15 m a.s.l. The two lowest paleosurfaces match the elevation of the previously recognized marine terraces in this area; we define a new, upper marine terrace corresponding to the 36 m paleosurface, which we name Campoverde complex. Based on the provided evidence of an age as young as MIS 5e for this terrace, we discuss the possibility that previous identification of a tectonically stable MIS 5e coastline ranging 10-8 m a.s.l. in this area should be revised, with significant implications on assessment of the amplitude of sea-level oscillations during the Last Interglacial in the Mediterranean Sea.

In the present study we provide a paleontological and chronostratigraphic review of the Villafranchian fossiliferous sites of Latium, revising the biochronologic attribution based on their framing within the geodynamic and paleogeographic evolutionary picture for this region. Aimed at this scope, we reconstruct the sedimentary and structural history of the Early Pleistocene marine basins through the review and the regional correlation of published stratigraphic sections and borehole data. Moreover, we combine the chronostratigraphic constraints provided in this study to the near-coast deposits of Gelasian-Santernian age (2.58-1.5 Ma) with the results of a recent geomorphologic study of this area, allowing us to reconstruct a suite of terraced paleo-surfaces correlated with marine isotopic stages 21 through 5. By doing so, we provide further age constraints to the sedimentary and tectonic processes acting on the Tyrrhenian Sea margin in Quaternary times, highlighting a possible different paleogeographic evolution of the southern coastal area where the Middle-Villafranchian type-section of Coste San Giacomo site is located, with respect to the northern sector. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Aurelian Mammal Age for peninsular Italy was introduced on the basis of faunal assemblages mainly recovered at sites along the Via Aurelia west of Rome. These sites exposed a set of sedimentary deposits currently attributed to the Aurelia and to the Vitinia Formations correlated with MIS 9 and MIS 7, respectively. In the present paper we reconstruct the geologic-stratigraphic setting in the western sector of Rome within the wider context of glacio-eustatically controlled, geochronologically constrained aggradational successions defined for this region. We present a chronostratigraphic study based on dedicated field surveys, that, combined with five new 40Ar/39Ar ages and eighteen trace-element and EMP glass analyses of volcanic products, allow us to revise age and correlation with the Marine Isotopic Stages for 10 sites out of 12 previously attributed to the Aurelia Formation and the Torre in Pietra Faunal Unit. In particular, we demonstrate a MIS 13/MIS 11 age for several sections along the Via Aurelia between Malagrotta and Castel di Guido. Based on this new geochronological framework, the first occurrences of Canis lupus and Vulpes vulpes in Italy are antedated to MIS 11, within the Fontana Ranuccio Faunal Unit of the Galerian Mammal Age, consistent with the wider European context. This contribution is intended as the groundwork for a revision of the Middle Pleistocene Mammal Ages of the Italian peninsula, according to the improved chronostratigraphy of the geologic sections hosting the faunal assemblages.

Following a recent chronostratigraphic revision of 17 fossiliferous sites hosting assemblages constituting local faunas of the Aurelian Mammal Age (AMA) for peninsular Italy, we provide a re-structured biochronological framework and discuss the current validity and significance of the Middle Pleistocene Faunal Units (FU) for this region. In contrast with the previous model of a wide faunal renewal during Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 9 (~330 ka), the First Occurrences (FO) of several species of the Torre in Pietra FU are significantly backdated and referred to the Fontana Ranuccio FU (530-400 ka). We show that the faunal renewal was more gradual and occurred earlier than previously assumed. Many taxa that are typical of the Late Pleistocene register their FO in the Fontana Ranuccio FU, latest Galerian, which is characterized by the almost total disappearance of Villafranchian taxa and by the persistence of typical Galerian taxa such as Dama clactoniana, Bison schoetensacki and Ursus deningeri, and by the FO of Stephanorhinus kirchbergensis, S. hemitoechus, Hippopotamus amphibius, Cervus elaphus eostepahnoceros, Ursus spelaeus, Canis lupus, and Vulpes vulpes. The next Torre in Pietra FU is characterized only by the FO of Megaloceros giganteus and of Mustela putorius. However, we observe that MIS 9 marks the actual moment when the faunal assemblages of this region are represented only by those taxa characterizing the late Middle Pleistocene and Late Pleistocene. For this reason, we propose to consider the Torre in Pietra (lower levels) local fauna still as a conventional boundary for the Galerian-Aurelian transition. Finally, we remark that the strong faunal renewal in MIS 13, with six FOs, coincides with the temperate climatic conditions due to the absence of marked glacial periods that could have favored the FOs and the subsequent spread of these taxa.

The Ponte Galeria area is part of the larger "Campagna Romana" and hosted the inner delta of the Tiber River since the beginning of the Middle Pleistocene, allowing the deposition of a series of glacio-eustatically controlled fluvial-lacustrine sedimentary successions very rich in fossil mammal remains. Due to its richness of fossiliferous sites, this area represents an exceptional archive for the study and understanding of the biochronological, paleobiogeographical and paleoenvironmental evolution during the Middle Pleistocene in Europe. A series of recent studies, using the 40Ar/39Ar ages of tephra intercalated within the sedimentary deposits, provided a large amount of geochronological data linking these aggradational successions to the different Marine Isotopic Stages. In the present paper we present a complete review of the faunal assemblages identified so far in the Ponte Galeria area, and we constrain the ages of the faunal units by placing them within the new chronostratigraphic scheme. By means of this interdisciplinary approach, we re-calibrate the mammal assemblages collected in this area and reconstruct a new biochronological and paleobiogeographic framework for the Italian peninsula during the Middle Pleistocene. In particular, we distinguish six well-defined biochronological units (Slivia, Ponte Galeria, Isernia, Fontana Ranuccio, Torre in Pietra, and Vitinia) in the studied area covering a time span of ca 0.6 Myr, from the Early to Middle Pleistocene transition to at least marine isotope stage 7. This period is characterized in Europe by the Mid-Pleistocene Revolution (global climate change) and by the transition at first between Villafranchian and Galerian taxa and later between the Galerian and Aurelian ones. According to the reviewed data, the persistence of Villafranchian taxa is recorded in Italy at the beginning of the Middle Pleistocene probably due to favorable climatic conditions or delay in dispersal of competitive species, while the faunal turnover between the Villafranchian and Galerian species was completed around 0.6-0.5 Ma. During this time, Bos primigenius and other temperate-warm taxa were widespread in the Peninsula earlier than in Western Europe. In contrast, typical Aurelian taxa, usually related with temperate-cold climatic conditions (Ursus spelaues, Megaloceros giganteus), occurred later in Italy than in other Western European areas.