Middle Pleistocene vertebrate-bearing fluvial deposits of the Ceriti Mts area, Latium coast (central Italy)

Abstract

It is here presented a Middle Pleistocene fossiliferous site, the Cerveteri Monte Li Pozzi (CMLP) site, located in the Ceriti Mts area, within the wider Roman Basin (Latium coast, central Italy). The outcropping succession is, from base to top, composed of terrigenous and carbonate fluvial deposits, travertines and ~ 410 ka old pyroclastites. The fluvial deposits form an aggradational river terrace, belong to an ancient risen alluvial-coastal plain and sedimented close to the palaeocoast. Two fossiliferous levels have been discovered inside: the lower level, where Elephas (Palaeoloxodon) antiquus and Axis sp. ? A. eurygonos were found; the upper level with E. antiquus, Stephanorhinus cf. S. hundsheimensis, Dama cf. D. clactoniana, Arvicola mosbachensis, Testudo sp.. The faunal assemblage as a whole indicates the middle-late Galerian Mammal Age, approximately 600-500 ka, and may be correlated with the MIS 15 or MIS 13. This fossil assemblage is the first discovery of Galerian fauna in the Ceriti Mts area and thus represents a new Local Fauna. On the basis of lithostratigraphic, biochronologic and elevation data, it is possible to estimate an approximately 0.26 mm/a uplift rate in the Ceriti Mts basin.