GLI ELEFANTI DEL PLIOCENE SUPERIORE E DEL PLEISTOCENE DELL'ITALIA CENTRALE PENINSULARE: ALCUNE CONSIDERAZIONI

Abstract

Two elephantine lineages are recorded in the Plio­Pleistocene of Eurasia: mammuttine and paleoloxodontine ones. These lineages may be distinguished principally by on the skull, molars and tusks characters, on the structure of carpus and tarsus and on different proportion of the body. In Italy the first Mammuthus (M. meridionalis gromov1) ap­peares about 2.6 m.a. BP (Montopoli Fauna! Unit), at the beginning of Pretiglian, when an important and sharp ch􀀔nge in the faunas takes piace: warm forest assemblages d1sap­peared and more open, savannah or parkland landscape spe­cies migrate to Europe. M. m. gromovi shows very archaic dental feature, but seems to be closely related to Late Vil­lafranchian subspecies M. meridionalis meridionalis. [..]