The Middle Pleistocene Deposits of the Roman Basin (Latium, Italy):An Integrated Approach of Mammal Biochronology and Sequence Stratigraphy (original) (raw)
Related papers
Quaternary international, 2005
In the Campagna Romana area Pleistocene vertebrate fossil remains are preserved both in continental and marine sedimentary successions. This fact favoured the identification of faunal complexes in agreement with the biochronologic setting proposed for the Plio-Pleistocene large mammal faunas of the Italian peninsula. At the same time, the detailed facies and sequence stratigraphic analyses carried out in the last years on such deposits have allowed establishment of a regional and local chronostratigraphic framework which sets some physical and temporal limits to the occurrence of faunal complexes. In this light, the study of the Pleistocene deposits of the Roman Basin, based on sequence stratigraphy and mammal biochronology approach, can constitute a significant tool to test the relationships among physical stratigraphic units, faunal complexes and faunal units. In the examined area, the fossiliferous levels are essentially found in transgressive fluvial and fluvio-palustrine deposits filling incised valleys (TST) and in highstand barrier island-lagoon deposits (HST). Excluding some cases where bones show a probable exhumation process, whole discovered mammal remains are mostly coeval with deposits containing them. Based on taphonomic considerations and on depositional and physical stratigraphic settings, a correlation scheme among Roman Pleistocene sequencestratigraphic units, local faunal complexes and Italian mammal biochrons is proposed. Nevertheless, many problems remain to be clarified before either the correlation between events and the geochronological framework, or the significance and the biochronological value of each faunal assemblage can be considered as definitive.
2011
Palombo M.R. & Milli S., Mammal fossil record, depositional setting, and sequence stratigraphy in the Middle-Upper Pleistocene of Roman Basin. (IT ISSN 0394-3356, 2010) In the Roman Basin, and particularly in the Ponte Galeria area, Quaternary vertebrate remains are preserved both in continental and marine sedimentary successions. The facies and sequence stratigraphical analyses carried out in the last twenty years on such deposits led to a detailed local chronostratigraphical framework which fixes some physical and temporal limits to the fist/last local appearances of some mammalian taxa. This contributes to a better definition of faunal complexe, characterizing the biochronological setting proposed for the Quaternary large mammal faunas of the Italian peninsula. Riassunto: Palombo M.R. & Milli S., Record fossile a mammiferi, assetto deposizionale e stratigrafia sequenziale della successione del Pleistocene medio-superiore del Bacino Romano. (IT ISSN 0394-3356, 2010) Nel Bacino Rom...
Late-Middle Pleistocene Mammal Faunas of Latium (Central Italy): Stratigraphy and Environment
Quaternary International, 1998
Mammal faunas referred to the late-Middle Pleistocene have been known for a long time from Latium, especially from the 'Bassa Campagna Romana', where the explosive products of the Sabatinian and Alban volcanic districts are interbedded with sedimentary cycles, that represent alluvial fills. The faunas have been examined by several authors but discordant opinions have been expressed about the age of the beds where the faunas were found. The faunal associations of Castel di Guido-La Polledrara-Malagrotta, Riano Flaminio and Torre in Pietra (lower beds) belong to the first sedimentary cycle named the Aurelia Formation, which is related to oxygen isotope stage 9. The character of these faunas suggests several cool-temperate oscillations within this stage and the presence of an open environment along the coast, whereas, inland, deciduous forests, indicating moist temperate conditions, were present. The associations of Torre in Pietra (upper beds), Vitinia, and Sedia del Diavolo are referred to a second sedimentary cycle, named the 'Vitinia Formation', related to oxygen isotope stage 7; these associations are modern in character, and are generally dominated by fallow deer. The climatic conditions were warm-temperate and wet, with an expansion of thermophilous forests. ᮊ
Quaternary International, 2007
Over the last 50 years the studies on terrestrial mammals of the Italian peninsula have provided a large volume of data and a more detailed knowledge of faunal events during the Late Pliocene and Quaternary. Moreover geological, sedimentological, palynological and magnetostratigraphical investigations on the Pliocene–Pleistocene continental sedimentary basins have yielded the possibility of a detailed calibration of the faunal successions. Thus, palaeontologists have been able to reconstruct faunal sequences and to propose biochronological scales based on large and small mammals, respectively. In the present contribution an integration of the two biochronological scales is proposed, and the successions of bioevents are carefully compared. This integrated approach allows the constraint of the sequence of large- and small-mammal events in a more reliable way, and therefore it results in a more detailed and consistent chronological use of mammalian assemblages. Particular attention is paid to the faunal changes that correspond to the Middle–Late Pliocene (2.6 ma), Pliocene–Pleistocene (1.8 ma) and Early–Middle Pleistocene (Gauss–Matuyama transition) chronostratigraphical boundaries.
The Aurelian Mammal Age for peninsular Italy was introduced on the basis of faunal assemblages mainly recovered at sites along the Via Aurelia west of Rome. These sites exposed a set of sedimentary deposits currently attributed to the Aurelia and to the Vitinia Formations correlated with MIS 9 and MIS 7, respectively. In the present paper we reconstruct the geologic-stratigraphic setting in the western sector of Rome within the wider context of glacio-eustatically controlled, geochronologically constrained aggradational successions defined for this region. We present a chronostratigraphic study based on dedicated field surveys, that, combined with five new 40 Ar/ 39 Ar ages and eighteen trace-element and EMP glass analyses of volcanic products, allow us to revise age and correlation with the Marine Isotopic Stages for 10 sites out of 12 previously attributed to the Aurelia Formation and the Torre in Pietra Faunal Unit. In particular, we demonstrate a MIS 13/MIS 11 age for several sections along the Via Aurelia between Malagrotta and Castel di Guido. Based on this new geochronological framework, the first occurrences of Canis lupus and Vulpes vulpes in Italy are antedated to MIS 11, within the Fontana Ranuccio Faunal Unit of the Galerian Mammal Age, consistent with the wider European context. This contribution is intended as the groundwork for a revision of the Middle Pleistocene Mammal Ages of the Italian peninsula, according to the improved chronostratigraphy of the geologic sections hosting the faunal assemblages.
2007
Reconstructing the Neogene-Quaternary biostratigraphy in continental environments and recognising 'boundaries' between successive mammalian faunal complexes is a problematic task. The definition and application of biochronology has been often tainted by references to and inferences from biostratigraphy. Actually, the discontinuities in the continental sedimentary record, environmental conditions, taphonomic and sampling biases are responsible for the fact that the stratigraphical order of the lowest and highest occurrences of fossil remains (stratigraphic datum) does not necessarily reflect the temporal order of actual first/last appearances of taxa (palaeobiological events) in time. Nonetheless, the first/last appearance bioevents (recorded by lowest/highest occurrences of fossil remains in fossiliferous levels of different continental stratigraphical successions) have been the principal foundation for establishing the biochronological setting of continental mammal faunas. Therefore, from a theoretical point of view, 'boundaries' should be defined by the oldest and/or youngest 'historical occurrence' of one or more taxa. What about an operational approach? Some examples of the Italian faunas are presented, focusing on the transition from the Villafranchian to the Galerian and from the Galerian to the Aurelian Land-Mammal Ages. The results obtained indicate the difficulty of defining a stable scheme that can be applied for correlation by the international scientific community.
2006
Palombo M.R., Biochronology of Plio-Pleistocene Mammalian Faunas on the Italian Peninsula: Knowledge, Problems and Perspectives. IT ISSN 0394-335, 2004 The biochronological setting thus far proposed for mammalian faunas from the Italian peninsula (constructed on the basis of classic criteria: the absence/presence of particular taxa, faunal turnovers, the “evolutionary stage” of taxa belonging to a well-defined phyletic lineage or “typical taxa associations”) provides a highly-detailed categorization of Italian assemblages. Nevertheless, the more detailed the bioevent sequence becomes, the more difficult it is to establish correlations on a larger scale. Multivariate analysis (the recognition of successive, non-overlapping, ecologically-adjusted assemblages of taxa living together in a given space and time) may provide a useful tool for defining faunal complexes having broader biochronological significance. As far as Middle PlioceneMiddle Pleistocene large mammalian faunas from the I...
Considerations on an integrated biochronological scale of Italian Quaternary Mammals
2011
Considerations on an integrated biochronological scale of Italian Quaternary continental mammals. The paper of MASINI and SALA (2007) regarding an integrated approach on the stratigraphic distribution patterns of large and small mammals in the late Pliocene and Pleistocene of the Italian peninsula is analysed, showing the weak and strong points. New data are presented on the mammal biochronology of the Late Pleistocene RIASSUNTO: Masini F. & Sala B., Considerazioni su una scala biocronologica integrata dei mammiferi continentali quaternari in Italia. Viene analizzato il lavoro di MASINI e SALA (2007) sull'approccio integrato della distribuzione dei grandi e piccoli mammiferi dell'Italia continentale del tardo Pliocene e del Pleistocene, tenendo conto della nuova definizione del Quaternario, mettendo in risalto i punti di forza e quelli deboli della scala proposta. Vengono inoltre aggiunti nuovi dati sulla biocronologia a mammiferi del Pleistocene Superiore.
2010
Palombo M.R., Biochronology of terrestrial mammals and Quaternary subdivisions: a case study of large mammals from the Italian peninsula (IT ISSN 0394-3356, 2009). Defining and subdividing the Quaternary on the basis of the mammalian fossil record from the continental realm is not a simple task due to the low degree of succession continuity and the scattered palaeontological evidence. Moreover, even if the approaches to the Quaternary are basically interdisciplinary and may combine many different chronological scales, establishing correlations between biochronology, biostratigraphy, chronostratigraphy, climatostratigraphy, and composite regional stratigraphy can often be very problematical. As far as biochronology is concerned, the marked geological, environmental and climatic diversity affecting different continental regions makes a correlation based on biological events difficult. Indeed, “biochronological units” represent a time span during which faunas have a degree of taxonomic...
Many Middle Pleistocene vertebrate assemblages of the Campagna Romana occur in well defined sedimentary units and are characterised by an abundance of fossil remains which enable us to recognise several faunal complexes. In particular, the faunas occurring in deposits correlated with the OISs 9 and 7 (Aurelia and Vitinia Formations) have been respectively attributed to the Torre in Pietra and Vitinia FUs, being the latter essentially characterised, with respect to the former, by the abundance of Dama dama "tiberina". The stratigraphic reinterpretation of some outcrops in the urban area of Rome (Sedia del Diavolo, Monte delle Gioie), where this taxon occurred, in addition to analysis of new outcrops and new radiometric dating, suggest a revision of the biochronological scheme up to now adopted. Basing on these data and taking into account that the bioevents utilised to define the Vitina FU are predated, this FU may be suppressed. Consequently the Middle-Upper Pleistocene faunal complexes of the Latium coastal area, occurring in the Aurelia and Vitinia Formations or in the fourth order depositional sequences PG6 (OIS 10-8 partim) and PG7 (OIS 8-6 partim) by , must be referred to the Torre in Pietra FU that in its new acceptation is characterised by the first appearance of Canis lupus, Ursus spelaeus, Megaloceros giganteus, Dama dama, by the persistence of Dama clactoniana and by the assemblage of Elephas antiquus, Bos primigenius and cervids.