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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 40Ar/39Ar 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.

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In the present study we provide a paleontological and chronostratigraphic review of the Villafranchian fossiliferous sites of Latium, revising the biochronologic attribution based on their framing within the geodynamic and paleogeographic evolutionary picture for this region. Aimed at this scope, we reconstruct the sedimentary and structural history of the Early Pleistocene marine basins through the review and the regional correlation of published stratigraphic sections and borehole data. Moreover, we combine the chronostratigraphic constraints provided in this study to the near-coast deposits of Gelasian-Santernian age (2.58–1.5 Ma) with the results of a recent geomorphologic study of this area, allowing us to reconstruct a suite of terraced paleo-surfaces correlated with marine isotopic stages 21 through 5. By doing so, we provide further age constraints to the sedimentary and tectonic processes acting on the Tyrrhenian Sea margin in Quaternary times, highlighting a possible different paleogeographic evolution of the southern coastal area where the Middle-Villafranchian type-section of Coste San Giacomo site is located, with respect to the northern sector.

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In this paper the Late Pleistocene and Holocene fossil and subfossil bats collected in Latium have been examined. Seventeen taxa belonging to eight genera and to four families were reported in the list of fossil species (the presence of three additional species in the fossil assemblages is dubious). Fifteen of them are reported as living today in the region. Exceptions are the boreal species Myotis dasycneme and Eptesicus nilssonii. On the other hand the presence in Latium of Myotis mystacinus and Barbastella barbastellus after 1980 is dubious. The majority of the fossil remains of bats collected in the sites of Latium (especially in terms of number of specimens) belong to troglophilous species, forming reproductive and/or hibernating colonies in caves (Rhinolophidae, Myotis myotis, M. blythii, M. capaccinii and Miniopterus schreibersii). Bats roosting in trees or rock fissures (Nyctalus noctula and Tadarida teniotis) or visiting the caves only during colder winters (Myotis bechsteinii and members of the genera Pipistrellus and Hypsugo) are quite rare. During the colder stages of the Late Pleistocene, the coastal regions of Latium must have played the role of refugia for animals and plants, as testified by several thermophilous Mediterranean sensu stricto species of bats, e.g. Rhinolophus euryale, M. capaccinii, Pipistrellus kuhlii, M. schreibersii and T. teniotis.

New and detailed taphonomic and stratigraphical analyses have been carried out at the early Late Pleistocene site of “La Grave”, nearby Avetrana (Taranto, Southern Italy). These, together with population analyses of the principal species represented (Bos primigenius, Dama dama, Cervus elaphus, Sus scrofa and Stephanorhinus hemitoechus), suggest that the fossiliferous deposits were probably accumulated rapidly, over a short time span, by exceptional events of heavy rainfall with overbank flooding. These results are supported particularly by comparison of the mammalian death assemblages from Avetrana with data from recent and Pleistocene catastrophic death assemblages documented in the literature. Furthermore, population analysis of species pinpoints the time of death between late autumn and winter. Periods with abundant and heavy rainfall are recorded in Late Pleistocene Mediterranean marine cores by the presence of sapropel levels, and in continental pollen diagrams covering the same time. Finally, observations on the morphometric variations in the bones of Bos primigenius reveal an increase in size of the species during the early Late Pleistocene and a decrease in size during the late Late Pleistocene and the Holocene. SHORT NOTE-NOTA BREVE, Rivista italiana di Paleontologia e Stratigrafia, Vol 119, No 1

The evolutionary trends and adaptations of the red deer from the Middle Pleistocene to the present day are well documented in Eurasia. These are generally explained by the high capability of this deer to adapt to different enviromental and climatic conditions. The large number of subspecies attributed to Cervus elaphus , often limited to specific paleogeographical areas above all during the late Middle Pleistocene, can be explained by this characteristic. The abundant remains of red deer collected from Late Pleistocene and older Holocene fossiliferous localities in Italy has allowed a detailed analysis of morphometric features in different areas of the Italian Peninsula and also some interesting paleoecological discussion. The variation and differences observed in the size of the red deer show close relationships with the latitude and the paleoclimate., Rivista italiana di Paleontologia e Stratigrafia, Vol 121, No 1

The karstic areas of Apulia in SE Italy are characterized by fissures locally called ventarole, which are known to contain bones of Pleistocene mammals. These bone assemblages have been commonly associated to the Late Pleistocene, based on stratigraphic, geo- morphological and biochronological observations. We undertook palaeontological, radiocarbon and isotope analyses to verify whether the animal remains from the quarry of Cava Donno, near Corigliano d’Otranto (Apulia), were all actually of Pleistocene age. Our study shows that the infills of the ventarole contain, along with Late Pleistocene bones attributable to the Melpignano Faunal Unit, Holocene vertebrate skeletal remains. The deeper red clay infill at Cava Donno contains fauna of Pleistocene age, whilst the upper dark-reddish clayey sands contain mainly the bones of domestic animals and of a modern human. The AMS radiocarbon date, obtained to establish the age of this human from the ventarola, coincides with the Neolithic period. Carbon and nitrogen isotope analyses on the same bone collagen suggest that the diet of this individual was similar to that of other Neolithic humans from Italy. The individual from Cava Donno had a balanced diet, centred upon terrestrial foods, with nutrients acquired both from vegetal and animal resources. The combined palaeontological, radiocar- bon and isotopic data presented here suggest that crypto-solution processes occurred at Cava Donno both in the Last Interglacial and, to some extent, also around the Holocene Climatic Optimum. This implies that ventarole karst infills may contain vertebrate remains of Plei- stocene and Holocene age and that, therefore, the assemblages from them probably need revising because they may not all date back to the early Late Pleistocene.