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Geological Society, London, Special Publications; 2005; v. 247; p. 263-276;
DOI: 10.1144/GSL.SP.2005.247.01.15
© 2005 Geological Society of London

Highlighting the Early-Middle Pleistocene transition in Italian and French large-mammal faunas: similarities and faunal renewals

Maria R. Palombo1,2 & Andrea M. F. Valli1,3

1 Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università degli studi di Roma ‘La Sapienza’, Piazzale Aldo Moro 5, I-00185 Roma, Italy
2 CNR- Istituto di Geologia Ambientale e Geoingegneria, Piazzale Aldo Moro 5, I-00185 Roma, Italy mariarita.palombo{at}uniromal.it
3 Istituto Italiano di Paleontologia Umana, Piazza Mincio 2, I-00100 Roma, Italy

A similarity analysis between the large-mammal faunas of France and the Italian peninsula for the Pliocene to Middle Pleistocene highlights the taxonomic and structural renewal of large-mammal assemblages that took place at the Early-Middle Pleistocene transition. This faunal renewal coincides with a period of climatic deterioration revealed by the spread of grasslands that supported more abundant ‘cold’ taxa. Nevertheless, both in France and in Italy, this passage is not marked by a real turnover (i.e. the complete or almost complete renewal of a mammal fauna), but by an extinction phase followed by a dispersal event.