Search results for " Palaeogeography"

Witnesses of the early Pliocene sea-level rise in the Manilva Basin (Málaga, S Spain)

2020

The Sierra de la Utrera, a relief in the Manilva Basin (Malaga, SW Spain), shows bored surfaces at different heights above present-day sea level, from 96 m to 287 m. Borings occur in the eastern, central, and western parts of the Canuto de la Utrera, a prominent gorge in the central southern part of the relief excavated in Mesozoic limestones, as well as on the western end of the Canuto Chico, a smaller canyon in the northern part. Pliocene marine deposits fossilized the bored surfaces. Bored boulders of the substrate are embedded in the Pliocene sediments. The traces Gastrochaenolites ispp., Entobia ispp., Caulostrepsis ispp., Circolites kotoucensis, and Ericichnus asgaardi have been ident…

Depositional environment and biofacies characterisation of the Triassic (Carnian to Rhaetian) carbonate succession of Punta Bassano (Marettimo Island…

2007

AThe aims of this study are to reconstruct the geological setting of the Punta Bassano series (Marettimo Island, Egadi Archipelago, western Sicily) and its palaeogeographic evolution. The reference section for the Upper Triassic of Marettimo shows an alternation of marl and limestone beds together with brecciated levels. The limestones are both homogeneous mudstones with evaporite pseudomorphs and laminated with fenestrae. Foraminiferal, palynomorph, and ostracod associations constrain the Punta Bassano sequence to the Carnian-Rhaetian interval. The Punta Bassano succession represents a shallow inner ramp, ranging from open-marine environment with good water circulation to lagoonal and peri…

Does genetic population structure of Ambrosina bassii L. (Araceae, Ambrosineae) attest a post-Messinian land-bridge between Sicily and Africa?

2012

Abstract Aim of the present work is the analysis (through the study of enzyme polymorphism) of Sicilian and African (Tunisian) populations of Ambrosina bassii , a small perennial endemic to the Central-Western Mediterranean basin, in order to verify if the complex geological history of this part of the Mediterranean area left its mark in the present-day genetic structure of this taxon. Starch gel allozyme electrophoresis of seven putative loci of A. bassii was employed to estimate genetic diversity, genetic structure and gene flow. Populations from Sicily, Tunisia and Sardinia (as outgroup) were sampled. Results show that Sicily populations have 4 private alleles, Sardinia 3, Tunisia just o…

A possible bridge between Adria and Africa: New palaeobiogeographic and stratigraphic constraints on the Mesozoic palaeogeography of the Central Medi…

2010

Abstract Dinosaur records in central and southern Italy testify to the occurrence of a diverse dinosaur fauna on the Apennine and Apulian carbonate platforms at least from the Tithonian to the Santonian. Most of the palaeogeographic reconstructions show these domains as topographically isolated areas, separated by deep pelagic basins and far from emerged continental areas. Thus, they hardly justify the long-lasting occurrence of these terrestrial vertebrates. Recent studies on the Mesozoic Panormide Carbonate Platform (western Sicily) yielded important stratigraphical and palaeontological data, which provide evidence for a convincing explanation of this unresolved problem. The recent discov…

Neo-Tethys (or Palaeotethys arm?)Permian-Mesozoic carbonates in the Pelagian continental margin (Central Mediterranean)

2014

Mixed Carbonate Ramps: Tectonic and Palaeogeographic settings (Sicily, Southern Italy)

2014

The Impact of Climate, Resource Availability, Natural Disturbances and Human Subsistence Strategies on Sicilian Landscape Dynamics During the Holocene

2022

This paper presents a multidisciplinary summary of the most recent discoveries and hypotheses concerning factors driving the human subsistence economy and landscape shaping in Sicily during the Holocene. A number of scientific papers have recently pointed out the key role played by paleogeography, resource (water, food) availability and natural disturbances (volcanic eruptions, tsunamis) in local human activities. Modern anthropology and archaeology increasingly use biological remains (e.g. soils, bones, wood, plant macroremains, pollen) to better understand how human communities managed to survive and spread. Likewise, refined reconstructions of past human demographic fluxes and socio-econ…

The small mammals (insectivores, bats and rodents) from the Holocene site of Vallone Inferno (Scillato, Sicily)

2013

The Vallone Inferno rock-shelter is an archeological site located at 770 m a.s.l. in the Madonie massif in Sicily. This massif is modeled into the Triassic and Oligocene sedimentary rocks of the Imerese Basin. Thearchaeological excavations conducted since 2008 have provided a long prehistoric and historic sequence from the Neolithic to the medieval period. From the four sedimentary complexes identified, only levels 3.4 to 3.1 from complex 3 and 4.2 from complex 4 have yielded small-mammal material. Level 4.2 is poor in remains and as yet without cultural ascription, though it has a radiocarbon age of 9450±50 years BP. Level 3.4 has yielded fragments of ceramic characteristic of the Middle N…

Sicilian Jurassic Phisiography and Geologic Realms

2004

Two tectono-sedimentary domains, which were deformed during the Neogene and evolved into two large structural sectors, characterize the Sicilian Jurassic: the Maghrebides and Peloritani. Africa margin sediments, passing downward to Triassic successions and perhaps originally to Paleozoic deposits, characterize the former. The latter belongs to the European "Calabrian Arc", where the Jurassic transgressively rests on a continental substrate (i.e. the crystalline Variscan basement). These domains are characterized by four sedimentary facies: shallow platform-derived limestones; condensed seamount-type red limestones; nodular limestones with ammonites; deep radiolarites and shales. These facie…

Cenomanian–Turonian carbonate and organic-carbon isotope records, biostratigraphy and provenance of a key section in NE Sicily, Italy: Palaeoceanogra…

2008

In eastern Sicily, a series of highly organic-rich black shales occur as exotic blocks (~ 100 m across) floating in tectonized sediments (Argille Varicolori Unit containing olistoliths of Cretaceous-Palaeogene age). A 19-metre section, through one of these blocks near the town of Novara di Sicilia, includes cyclically bedded black shales, marlstones and claystones, which have been dated using planktonic foraminiferal and nannofossil biostratigraphy. On this basis, the section is assigned to the latest Cenomanian and clearly represents a manifestation of the Oceanic Anoxic Event characteristic of that interval. Total organic-carbon values range up to 23% and the relatively high hydrogen indi…