Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra

We revise the chronostratigraphy of several sedimentary successions cropping out along a 5 km-long tract of the Aniene River Valley in Rome (Italy), which yielded six hominin remains previously attributed to proto-or archaic Neanderthal individuals, as well as a large number of lithic artefacts showing intermediate characteristics somewhere between the local Acheu-lean and Mousterian cultures. Through a method of correlation of aggradational successions with post-glacial sea-level rises, relying on a large set of published 40 Ar/ 39 Ar ages of inter-bedded volcanic deposits, we demonstrate that deposition of the sediments hosting the human remains spans the interval 295–220 ka. This is consistent with other well constrained ages for lithic industries recovered in England, displaying transitional features from Lower to Middle Paleolithic, suggesting the appearance of Mode 3 during the MIS 9-MIS 8 transition. Moreover, the six human bone fragments recovered in the Aniene Valley should be regarded as the most precisely dated and oldest hominin remains ascribable to Neanderthal-type individuals in Europe, discovered to date. The chronostratigraphic study presented here constitutes the groundwork for addressing re-analysis of these remains and of their associated lithic industries, in the light of their well-constrained chronological picture.

Several taxa belonging to the so called megafauna became extinct during the late Quaternary in Eurasia. The extinction chronology of the narrow-nosed rhinoceros, Stephanorhinus hemitoechus, in Europe is still uncertain and only estimated around 45 ka. A systematic revision of several rhinoceros findings reveals that this species occurred in Italy at least untill 41 ka BP, at the onset of the Heinrich Event 4. Climatic fluctuations during MIS 3 and habitat fragmentation probably created an increase of small S. hemitoechus populations in southern Euro-pe which had a tendency to become extinct.

In 1979, several specimens of Rhinocerotidae were collected from the Late Miocene deposits of the Zala Subbasin, Pannonian Basin, Western Hungary and were inventoried as Rhinoceros sp. Based on morphological and metric grounds, this material is here referred to " Dihoplus " megarhinus (de Christol), a species previously known only from Pliocene localities. This is the earliest record of the species in Europe. Our results support the hypothesis that the origin of " D ". megarhinus took place in Asia and that this species successively dispersed towards Western Europe during the end of the Miocene. Systématique Morphologie Biochronologie Paléobiogéographie r é s u m é En 1979, plusieurs spécimens de Rhinocerotidae ont été collectés dans les dépôts du Miocène supérieur du bassin de Zala, en Pannonie (Hongrie occidentale), et alors attribués à Rhinoceros sp. Sur la base des données métriques et morphologiques, ce matériel est ici attribué à « Dihoplus » megarhinus (de Christol), une espèce précédemment connue seulement dans des localités du Pliocène. Cette nouvelle découverte est la plus ancienne mention en Europe pour « D ». megarhinus. Notre analyse suggère que l'origine de « D ». megarhinus a eu lieu en Asie et que cette espèce s'est probablement dispersée en Europe occidentale dès le Miocène supérieur.

This paper describes the Late Pleistocene and Holocene remains of Canis lupus from Grotta Mora Cavorso (Latium, Italy), with a particular focus on the anatomically connected skeleton found in Layer 7, radiometrically dated to over 43,500 years BP and correlated with Marine Isotopic Stage 3. The studied specimens were compared with wolf remains collected from numerous Middle and Late Pleistocene and Holocene sites in Italy, France, Austria and Slovenia. Additional comparisons were made with a sample of the extant Apennine wolf, Canis lupus italicus. The Late Pleistocene and Holocene wolves from Grotta Mora Cavorso range between 6 and 10 years of age at death, 64–75 cm in height at the withers, 150–162 cm in body length, and 30–39 kg in body mass. They are mor-phometrically close to Canis lupus maximus, a Late Pleistocene chrono-subspecies of France. The late Middle and Late Pleistocene wolves of Italy show a great variability in body size. This prevents the recognition of a progressive increase of size in Italian wolves with any resulting biochronological implications. The Holocene reduction in body size of the extant Apennine wolf was more recent than previously thought, probably because of genetic isolation , and the rarefaction and subsequent local extinction of large-sized prey, such as red deer. In addition, the 6 year old anatomically connected specimen discovered at Grotta Mora Cavorso, probably a female, allows some considerations on the functional morphology of Pleistocene wolves.

ABSTRACT Paleoenvironmental variations that occurred in Italy from the Middle Pliocene to the Late Pleistocene are described. The number of large mammal species seems increased moderately, especially from the Galerian to the Late Aurelian biochronological units. On ...