Search results for "PLEISTOCENE"
showing 10 items of 298 documents
The last glacial/interglacial record of rodent remains from the Gigny karst sequence in the French Jura used for palaeoclimatic and palaeoecological …
1995
Abstract A multidisciplinary approach has produced an exceptional chronological log of climatic patterns for the Upper Pleistocene sequence of Gigny Cave (Jura, France) covering the Pre-Eemian, Eemian Interglacial, Middle Glacial and Upper Pleniglacial, as well as a part of the Holocene. Multivariate analysis (correspondence and component analysis) of rodent associations from the sequence is used here to characterize the different climatic stages in terms of relative temperature, plant cover and moisture. Faunal analysis establishes: (1) positive and negative correlations among the variations of the different species; (2) the significance of axis 1 (component analysis) which, in terms of te…
New molecular data attest to the absence of cospeciation patterns between Placobdella costata (Fr. Müller, 1846) (Hirudinea) and freshwater turtles (…
2021
The only Palearctic representative of the leech genus Placobdella Blanchard, 1893 is P. costata, an ectoparasite of freshwater turtles. To date, no conclusive evidence about the possible presence of coevolutionary patterns between this leech and its turtle hosts is available due to the paucity of DNA sequence data available for P. costata; moreover, comparative host data is also mostly lacking, making any inferences more difficult. The discovery of new populations of the species in northern Italy and Sicily allowed us to generate novel mitochondrial DNA sequences and to compare the topology of the resulting phylogenetic trees with the phylogeny of the turtle hosts occurring in the study are…
The last of the large-sized tortoises of the Mediterranean islands
2022
Altres ajuts: CERCA Programme/Generalitat de Catalunya Altres ajuts: Operational Programme Research, Development and Education Project (CZ.02.2.69/0.0/0.0/16_027/0008360) Archaeological investigations carried out in the cave Zubbio di Cozzo San Pietro, Bagheria, Sicily, revealed the presence of a few skeletal elements of a large-sized tortoise in a funerary area dating to the Copper/Bronze Age. The tortoise has been AMS-dated revealing an age of 12.5 ± 0.5 kyr BP and therefore it pre-dates the funerary activities. The morphology of the retrieved skeletal elements differs from that of the only native tortoise currently living in Sicily, Testudo hermanni. The tortoise's size significantly exc…
Life history, environment and extinction of the Scallop Carolinapecten Eboreus (Conrad) in the Plio-Pleistocene of the U.S. Eastern Seaboard
2019
Plio-Pleistocene mass extinction of marine bivalves on the U.S. eastern seaboard has been attributed to declines in temperature and primary production. We investigate the relationship of growth rate in the scallop Carolinapecten eboreus to variation in these parameters to determine which contributed to its extinction. We use ontogenetic profiles of shell δ18O to estimate growth rate and seasonal temperature, microgrowth-increment data to validate δ18O-based figures for growth rate, and shell δ13C to supplement assemblage evidence of production. Postlarval growth started in the spring/summer in individuals from the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain but in the autumn/ winter in some from the Gulf…
Adaptation to environmental changes: communities need more time than species
1998
Effects of environmental changes on communities and on species have been studied with two different types of animals: mammals and conodonts. This analysis was conducted on mammals from the ’Ubeidiya Sequence (Israel) dated to the Lower Pleistocene, and on conodonts from the quarry of Coumiac (France) dated to the Frasnian/Famennian boundary (Devonian). The main result of the analysis is that an ecological event can be subdivided. First of all there is a change in the environment that corresponds to a physical signal, the species react to this change, and afterwards the communities respond. Thus, a delay in time can be observed between the reaction of the species and the reaction of the comm…
Late Miocene turnover in the Spanish mammal record in relation to palaeoclimate and the Messinian Salinity Crisis
2006
Abstract The latest Miocene and earliest Pliocene is a period of marked changes in geography and climate in the circum-Mediterranean area. Its geographical situation gives Spain a key position, and its fossil mammal record reflects these important geographical and climatic changes particularly well. The Spanish mammal record shows a gradual change of composition towards the typical Pleistocene and recent fauna, marked by several extinction and dispersal events. These events have the effect that northern Eurasian elements increase, while taxa that locally go extinct may live on in tropical areas. Superposed on this large scale trend, there are some events of short lived incursions of animals…
Stratigraphic frame work of the type locality of Pirro Nord Mammal Faunal Unit (Late Villafranchian, Apricena south-eastern Italy)
2013
The fossiliferous karst deposits of the typical Pirro Nord Faunal Unit recently revived interest for the lithic tools documenting the human occurrence in southern Italy at Early Pleistocene. Therefore, a revision of the Pliocene to lowermost Pleistocene stratigraphic succession was needed. It was carried on with a twofold aim: to detail the stratigraphic architecture and the structural-depositional evolution of the “Apricena horst”, and to verify the chronostratigraphic constraints for the Pirro Nord F.U. in the type area of Apricena. The stratigraphic record has been subdivided in four units bounded by ubiquitous unconformity surfaces, often associated to evidence of sub-aerial exposure. F…
Book Review. The Pleistocene of Untermassfeld near Meiningen (Thüringen, Germany).
2020
Around one million years ago (late Early Pleistocene), a major faunal turnover occurred in Europe, linked to the onset of increased climatic instability: the transition between Villafranchian and Galerian faunas. Few palaeontological sites in Europe documents this biological event, highlighting over all of them the site of Untermassfeld, near Meiningen (Thuringia, Germany), which provided an amazing fossil record, either in abundance, diversity, and good preservation.Previous results of the interdisciplinary research developed on Untermassfeld were published in three volumes of the monograph series of the Romisch-Germanischen Zentralmuseums, Mainz, released in 1997 and 2001, as well as in a…
The Monte San Nicola section (Sicily) revisited: A potential unit-stratotype of the Gelasian Stage
2022
The Monte San Nicola area (Southern Sicily) offers a spectacular exposure of open-marine sediments that were employed in 1998 for defining the Global Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) of the Gelasian Stage (Upper Pliocene). After the lowering of the Pliocene/Pleistocene boundary to ca. 2.6 Ma in 2010, the Gelasian GSSP has been redefined as the base of both the Pleistocene Series and the Quaternary Period, which increased its importance and visibility within the scientific community. However, documentation on the Monte San Nicola reference section is still sparse. In the light of its renewed status, we decided to undertake a complete revision of the Gelasian Stage in its type area, in ord…
The European Pine Marten Martes martes (Linnaeus, 1758) Is Autochthonous in Sicily and Constitutes a Well-Characterised Major Phylogroup within the S…
2022
No molecular data are currently available for the Sicilian populations of the European pine marten Martes martes, thus preventing any sound inference about its native or non-native status on the island, as well as the local phylogeography of the species. In order to investigate these issues, we sequenced two mtDNA markers in road-killed specimens collected in Sicily. Both markers consistently demonstrated the existence of a well-characterised Sicilian clade of the species, which is endemic to the island and constitutes the sister group of a clade including the Mediterranean and Central–North European major phylogroups of the European pine marten. Such evidence supports the autochthony of Ma…