Palombo, Maria Rita

This paper re-apprises the scant elephant remains belonging to a dwarf Palaeoloxodon of uncertain taxonomy collected during the 1980s from a cave on Favignana Island (Aegadian Archipelago, western Sicily). The elephant was recently 14C-dated to the Last Glacial Maximum (20,350–19,840 cal. BP), indicating that the Favignana elephant is likely the most recent insular endemic Palaeoloxodon species thus far reported from the Western Mediterranean. Dimensionally the remains are smaller than the late Middle- Late Pleistocene P. ex gr. P. mnaidriensis from Puntali Cave (Palermo), and similar in size to the P. ex gr. P. mnaidriensis individual from San Teodoro Cave (Messina) post-dating a flowstone U-Th dated to ca. 32 ka. Accordingly, the possibility that relict populations of Palaeoloxodon persisted on Sicily longer than previously believed remains an intriguing possibility. None the less, the available data do not clearly indicate whether or not the small dimensions and recent age of the Favignana elephant may reflect a Late Pleistocene colonisation of Favignana Island by small P. ex gr. P.mnaidriensis. Our palaeogeographic reconstruction of the Aegadian Islands does however demonstrate that Favignana was connected to Sicily during most of the Late Pleistocene, allowing elephants to disperse freely between Sicily and Favignana during the Last Glacial (MIS 4-MIS2).

The Foresta ichnosite is well known for preserving some of the oldest human fossil footprints recorded in Europe so far. This research aims to: i) describe new footprints that are larger than those already reported, some of which form a new trackway that moves in the opposite direction to all the others; ii) announce the discovery of some stone tools also in the surroundings of the Foresta ichnosite. The new results increase the total number of human fossil footprints to at least 81, specify the direction and the number of footprints of Trackway C, and identify three new directions of walking at the site. More compelling and complete estimates of the dimensional range of all ichnological evidence enables us, furthermore, to estimate the number of trackmakers walking on the trampled surface as a minimum of five, one of them likely being an adult male. The general shape of all the recorded footprints suggests that the Foresta trackmakers share some similarities with those at Sima de los Huesos, and belong to the same taxonomical group as the Ceprano skull. All the new evidence enables us to better understand the presence of hominin populations in the Roccamonfina volcano area during the Middle Pleistocene.

A multidisciplinary approach has been applied to study sea level changes along the coast of Malta using data collected from underwater archaeological remains. The elevation of archaeological markers have been compared with predicted sea level curves providing new bodies of evidence that outline the vertical tectonic behaviour of this region, allowing estimation of the relative sea level changes that occurred in this area of the Mediterranean since the Bronze Age. During the Roman Age, sea level was at 1.36 +/- 0.1 m, while in the Midde Age it was at 0.56 +/- 0.2 m, in agreement with previous estimations for the Mediterranean region. Data indicate that Malta was tectonically stable during the studied period. The occurrence of the present-day notch along the coasts of the island indicates recent vertical stability of the area. The lack of MIS 5.5 deposits all over the island could simply be due to high rates of erosion, as its coasts are highly exposed to storm waves, rather than tectonic movements. However, even very slight vertical movements could completely remove field evidence. The relative stability of the Maltese Islands allowed a first attempt to provide a palaeoenvironmental reconstruction of its coasts at different time windows since the Last Glacial Maximum. The results have been used to infer time and mode of mammal dispersal to the island during the Pleistocene.

Multidisciplinary investigations at Pagliare di Sassa (L’Aquila, central Italy) suggest that the local succession accumulated from the late Early to the early Middle Pleistocene in a lacustrine environment. In the upper part, clastic sediments are part of an alluvial fan prograding into the lake, grading to a braided fluvial system. The pollen record confirms that a significant glacial phase occurred just before the onset of the Jaramillo inversion. These data, coupled with evidence from the nearby but earlier Madonna della Strada sequence, allow reconstruction of part of the environmental evolution of L’Aquila basin before the Jaramillo Subchron. The mammal species of Pagliare di Sassa include Stephanorhinus hundsheimensis, mostly of open environments, already present at Madonna della Strada. The faunal turnover characterizing the Early to Middle Pleistocene transition is indicated by the appearances of taxa typical of the Italian early to middle Galerian faunas, such as Praemegaceros verticornis, together with Megaloceros savini. The occurrence of Mimomys savini together with Microtus ex gr. Microtus hintonigregaloides suggests that this assemblage is earlier than the Isernia La Pineta fauna. A flint implement and a fragmentary herbivore femur with impact scars probably linked to human activity give evidence of the human peopling of intramontane basins of the Apennine chain since the early Middle Pleistocene.

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.