PALEOENVIRONMENTAL RECONSTRUCTION ON LATE CALABRIAN STAGE SEDIMENTS FROM THE BELICE VALLEY (SOUTHWESTERN SICILY - ITALY) BASED ON OSTRACODA

The Middle Pleistocene Transition is the most recent re-organization of the climate system, happened between 1.2 and 0.7 Ma. Marine sediments outcropping in Sicily have been a relevant source of information on the paleoclimatic and paleoenvironmental evolution of the Mediterranean Sea, over this time window. Among others, previous studies in Sicily identified and described the very cold phase and the marked sea level fall associated with the top MIS 22, which is lithologically expressed by a calcarenite bed colonized by the Arctica islandica northern guest. Here we investigate ostracod assemblages from marine sediments in the southwestern Sicily. Sediments, ascribed to the late Calabrian St…