BIOCRONOLOGIA E PALEOECOLOGIA DELLE MAMMALOFAUNE DEL PLEISTOCENE MEDIO DELL'ITALIA CENTRALE

Abstract

During the middle Pleistocene the mammal faunas progressively acquired a modem character. Already renewed faunas, but with archaic elements belonging to genera and species that do not appear in the extant faunas, character­ized the episode named "Galerian". In this episode (stages 22-11), that roughly coincides with the "Cromerian" of Netherlands (ZAGWDN, 1992), three different types of associ­ation can be recognized, tipically represented by locai fau­nas of Slivia, Isernia and Fontana Ranuccio. Faunas with modem character, in which elements lacking in extant fauna persist only in pachyderms, characterize the late Middle Pleistocene ("Rianian" episode) (stages 10-6). During this period, in centrai Italy two associations can be recognized that are tipically represented by the faunas of Aurelia For­mation (stage 9) and of Vitinia Formation (stage 7). The lat­ter is characterized by the abundance of modem fallow deer.