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In previous excavations at the San Teodoro Cave (North-Eastern Sicily) the Authors distinguished an upper Late Glacial sedimentary unit (Unit A) and a lower sedimentary unit (Unit B) containing Upper Pleistocene endemic mammal remains. New data collected during 2002 and 2003 excavations come from a trench located on the eastern side of the cave at a distance of 30-34 m from the entrance. In the new trench the composition and taphonomic characters of the faunal assemblage of the Unit B deposits are similar to those recognized in 1998 in a trench located on the eastern side of the cave at a distance of 9-13 m from the entrance. The Unit B contains a highly diversified assemblage of vertebrates, invertebrates and vegetal remains. Damages on bones and abundant coprolites testify to intense hyena activity. Complete and undamaged remains of elephant and deer are actually a novelty from a taphonomic point of view. A new sterile sedimentary unit (Unit C) has been brought to light. The characters of the new sedimentary Unit C suggest a correlation with the older lacustrine deposits located at the base of the vertical cliffs where the San Teodoro cave is located., Sezione di Museologia Scientifica e Naturalistica, 2005: Volume Speciale

At Cape Tindari, in North-Eastern Sicily, both right-lateral and extensional displacements are documented, but very little is known about the timing of the Upper Pleistocene faults. On the steep cliffs delimiting Cape Tindari, a triangular shaped fissure opens, named Donnavilla Cave, which contains the remains of a continental mammal-bearing deposit plastering the walls of the fissure bored by Lithodomus holes from 73 m up to 85 m a. s. l.. New geological, palaeontological and radiometric data on the Cape Tindari mammal-bearing deposits are here exposed and they are compared with the known terraced mammal bearing deposits in North-eastern Sicily. The mammal-bearing deposits and the walls bored by Lithodomus holes point to the previous existence at Cape Tindari of the inner margin of the MIS 5.5 marine terrace and of the overlying coastal plain deposits. A stalagmite crust previously overlying the mammal-bearing deposits and now hanging and sloping inward into the cave, point to an erosion phase of the inner margin of the coastal plain younger than the stalagmite crust which is 40 ± 4 ka old. At 104 m a.s.l. an older abrasion platform and littoral deposits up to 111 m a.s.l. have been recognised. The two coastal lines and the deeply eroded continental deposits furnish for the first time chronological evidence from stratigraphy and biochronology to time the Late Pleistocene faulting previously recognised at Cape Tindari. They are probably responsible for a lowering of Cape Tindari of about 20 m after the MIS 5.5 substage and for cutting of part of the coastal plain deposits after the deposit of the stalagmite crust., Rivista italiana di Paleontologia e Stratigrafia, Vol 116, No 1

This paper deals with terrestrial, freshwater and marine molluscs collected in the upper Pleistocene deposits of clay, sands and gravels of S. Teodoro Cave (North-eastern Sicily). Beginning from 1998 two trenches have been excavated (1998 and 2002-2004). A highly diversified assemblage of endemic and not endemic vertebrates (elephant, horse, wild ox, deer, wild boar, hyaena, fox, mouse, ground vole, shrew, hedgehog, bats, birds, reptiles), invertebrates (molluscs) and vegetal remains have been collected from the two trenches. The molluscan fauna is represented by poor to rich-species assemblages of land and freshwater gastropods and bivalves with Mediterranean-European character. Some species have been found for the first time as fossils in Sicily. The land snails prevail in the 1998 trench showing a persistent arid environment during the time of the sediment deposition. The freshwater species, characteristic of slow-running water, point to the presence of a small water body (stream or spring) inside the cave, probably more consistent in the 2002-2004 trench where this fauna prevails. The dispersal of the molluscan fauna of S. Teodoro Cave from the mainland during the low stand sea-level phases of the upper Pleistocene probably belongs to the same dispersal events following the Oxygen Isotope Stage 5e which introduced into the island not endemic faunal elements which are associated with endemic faunal elements in S. Teodoro Cave. Littoral marine reworked molluscs found in the cave deposits probably come from the sedimentary cover of a middle Pleistocene terrace which overlies the roof of the cave. SHORT NOTE, Rivista italiana di Paleontologia e Stratigrafia, Vol 113, No 1