The dawn of the Late Villafranchian: Paleoenvironment and age of the Pantalla paleontological site (Italy; Early Pleistocene)

Marco Cherin; Giorgio Basilici; Mathieu Duval; Qingfeng Shao; Mark J. Sier; Josep M. Parés; Elsa Gliozzi; Ilaria Mazzini; Donatella Magri; Federico Di Rita; Dawid A. Iurino; Beatrice Azzarà; Giulia Margaritelli; Fausto Pazzaglia

doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2023.108279

The dawn of the Late Villafranchian: Paleoenvironment and age of the Pantalla paleontological site (Italy; Early Pleistocene)

Marco Cherin^*, Giorgio Basilici, Mathieu Duval, Qingfeng Shao, Mark J. Sier, Josep M. Parés, Elsa Gliozzi, Ilaria Mazzini, Donatella Magri, Federico Di Rita, Dawid A. Iurino, Beatrice Azzarà, Giulia Margaritelli, Fausto Pazzaglia

^*Corresponding author for this work

Department of Earth Sciences Utrecht (DES / IVAU)

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

Biochronology is the most widely used method for organizing the successions of continental vertebrate faunas in geological time and for allowing the correlation of continental deposits. However, due to the fragmentary nature of the paleontological record and the diachronicity of first and last occurrences of vertebrate taxa in different areas (i.e., bioevents), it is difficult to precisely define the temporal boundaries between biochronological units. That is why it is crucial to calibrate biochronological data with independent proxies wherever possible. Here, thanks to an interdisciplinary approach that combines sedimentology and stratigraphy, vertebrate paleontology, micropaleontology (ostracods), palynology, and geochronology, we provide a chronological framework and a paleoenvironmental reconstruction of the paleontological site of Pantalla (Central Italy). The combination between biochronological/biostratigraphic and geochronological (U-series/ESR dating and paleomagnetism) data allows us to refer the site to c. 2.2 Ma, i.e., in the transition phase between the Middle and Late Villafranchian in the European biochronological scheme. We reconstruct the environment as a fluvial area with a frequently flooded wet floodplain and marked (probably seasonal) variations of the water level of the channel river. The depositional system was surrounded by a conifer-dominated forest, which is suggestive of a glacial phase.

Original language	English
Article number	108279
Journal	Quaternary Science Reviews
Volume	316
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2023.108279
Publication status	Published - 15 Sept 2023

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 Elsevier Ltd

Funding

MC is sincerely grateful to Maria C. De Angelis, Paola Romi, and all SABAP_UMB for their unvaluable support; the Parco Tecnologico Agroalimentare 3A-PTA (in particular Mauro Gramaccia) for allowing access to the site; Massimiliano R. Barchi for the trust in the earliest phases of the research and the financial support for the first samplings; Sergio Gentili and Angelo Barili for the information on 1994–1995 excavations; Alessandro Urciuoli and Leonardo Sorbelli for the help during survey and sampling; Giorgio Arcangeli for the interest during the coring operations. MC was supported by the “Fondo Ricerca di Base 2017”, Department of Physics and Geology, University of Perugia. MD is grateful to Verónica Guilarte Moreno, María Jesús Alonso Escarza, David Martínez Asturias, Javier Iglesias Cibanal, and Leticia Miguens Rodríguez, CENIEH, for technical support throughout the ESR dating procedure. Les Kinsley, ANU, and Rainer Grün, Griffith University, provided invaluable assistance with the laser ablation U-series analyses. ESR and U-series dating studies were covered by the Australian Research Council Future Fellowship FT150100215, the Spanish Ramón y Cajal Fellowship RYC2018-025221-I (funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by “ESF Investing in your future”) and the project CGL2010-16821 from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation. The solution U–Th analyses carried out in NNU were supported by the China NSFC grant 41877430. MD is grateful to Verónica Guilarte Moreno, María Jesús Alonso Escarza, David Martínez Asturias, Javier Iglesias Cibanal, and Leticia Miguens Rodríguez, CENIEH, for technical support throughout the ESR dating procedure. Les Kinsley, ANU, and Rainer Grün, Griffith University, provided invaluable assistance with the laser ablation U-series analyses. ESR and U-series dating studies were covered by the Australian Research Council Future Fellowship FT150100215 , the Spanish Ramón y Cajal Fellowship RYC2018-025221-I (funded by MCIN /AEI/ 10.13039/501100011033 and by “ESF Investing in your future”) and the project CGL2010-16821 from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation . The solution U–Th analyses carried out in NNU were supported by the China NSFC grant 41877430 . MC is sincerely grateful to Maria C. De Angelis, Paola Romi, and all SABAP_UMB for their unvaluable support; the Parco Tecnologico Agroalimentare 3A-PTA (in particular Mauro Gramaccia) for allowing access to the site; Massimiliano R. Barchi for the trust in the earliest phases of the research and the financial support for the first samplings; Sergio Gentili and Angelo Barili for the information on 1994–1995 excavations; Alessandro Urciuoli and Leonardo Sorbelli for the help during survey and sampling; Giorgio Arcangeli for the interest during the coring operations. MC was supported by the “Fondo Ricerca di Base 2017”, Department of Physics and Geology, University of Perugia .

Funders	Funder number
Department of Physics and Geology, University of Perugia
Leticia Miguens Rodríguez
Parco Tecnologico Agroalimentare 3A-PTA
Australian Research Council	MCIN /AEI/ 10.13039/501100011033, FT150100215
National Natural Science Foundation of China	41877430
Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación
European Social Fund	CGL2010-16821

Keywords

Biochronology
Gelasian
Mammals
Middle-Late Villafranchian
Ostracods
Paleomagnetism
Pollen
U-series/ESR dating

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10.1016/j.quascirev.2023.108279

Cite this

Cherin, M., Basilici, G., Duval, M., Shao, Q., Sier, M. J., Parés, J. M., Gliozzi, E., Mazzini, I., Magri, D., Di Rita, F., Iurino, D. A., Azzarà, B., Margaritelli, G., & Pazzaglia, F. (2023). The dawn of the Late Villafranchian: Paleoenvironment and age of the Pantalla paleontological site (Italy; Early Pleistocene). Quaternary Science Reviews, 316, Article 108279. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2023.108279

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abstract = "Biochronology is the most widely used method for organizing the successions of continental vertebrate faunas in geological time and for allowing the correlation of continental deposits. However, due to the fragmentary nature of the paleontological record and the diachronicity of first and last occurrences of vertebrate taxa in different areas (i.e., bioevents), it is difficult to precisely define the temporal boundaries between biochronological units. That is why it is crucial to calibrate biochronological data with independent proxies wherever possible. Here, thanks to an interdisciplinary approach that combines sedimentology and stratigraphy, vertebrate paleontology, micropaleontology (ostracods), palynology, and geochronology, we provide a chronological framework and a paleoenvironmental reconstruction of the paleontological site of Pantalla (Central Italy). The combination between biochronological/biostratigraphic and geochronological (U-series/ESR dating and paleomagnetism) data allows us to refer the site to c. 2.2 Ma, i.e., in the transition phase between the Middle and Late Villafranchian in the European biochronological scheme. We reconstruct the environment as a fluvial area with a frequently flooded wet floodplain and marked (probably seasonal) variations of the water level of the channel river. The depositional system was surrounded by a conifer-dominated forest, which is suggestive of a glacial phase.",

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Cherin, M, Basilici, G, Duval, M, Shao, Q, Sier, MJ, Parés, JM, Gliozzi, E, Mazzini, I, Magri, D, Di Rita, F, Iurino, DA, Azzarà, B, Margaritelli, G & Pazzaglia, F 2023, 'The dawn of the Late Villafranchian: Paleoenvironment and age of the Pantalla paleontological site (Italy; Early Pleistocene)', Quaternary Science Reviews, vol. 316, 108279. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2023.108279

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AU - Basilici, Giorgio

AU - Duval, Mathieu

AU - Shao, Qingfeng

AU - Sier, Mark J.

AU - Parés, Josep M.

AU - Gliozzi, Elsa

AU - Mazzini, Ilaria

AU - Magri, Donatella

AU - Di Rita, Federico

AU - Iurino, Dawid A.

AU - Azzarà, Beatrice

AU - Margaritelli, Giulia

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The dawn of the Late Villafranchian: Paleoenvironment and age of the Pantalla paleontological site (Italy; Early Pleistocene)

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

Keywords

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