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The urban area of Rome and its surroundings (the Roman Campaign, “Campagna Romana”) yielded an exceptional amount of fossil remains of terrestrial large mammals, which are of prime relevance for biochronological correlations and for reconstructing the paleoenvironmental conditions in the Italian Peninsula of the Middle Pleistocene. Apart from the mere quantity, the scientific importance of the Roman fossil record rests on the geochronological constraints that allow to date or correlate several findings, as well as on the dense chronological cover of continental deposits, for the last ~0.8 Ma. On the other hand, the case of Rome is emblematic of the challenges posed by investigating historical fossil collections, for instance, the necessity of a thoughtful integration of historical documentation (e.g., geological maps, museum labels) and indirect geological information (e.g., borehole lithology, the correlation between obliterated fossil sites and extant outcrops), owing to the intense urbanization occurred especially since the 1800s. Fossil-rich deposits of Rome have supplied collections housed in the city’s major museums, geosites, and universities, creating a valuable and unique paleontological heritage. Synthesis and perspective on these entwined aspects are provided herein, offering a geological and historical background alongside an overview of Middle Pleistocene mammal faunas of the area of Rome, with special emphasis on recent results that offer examples of - and how to deal with - different kinds of recoveries (from sporadic finds to systematic excavations), and ongoing work on the collection of the University Museum of Earth Sciences of Sapienza University of Rome (MUST). Reviewing the history of the MUST collection underlines the profound link between the history of the research on large mammal faunas of Rome and the history of the collection itself. The management of the paleontological heritage of Rome, consisting of thousands of remains spanning from isolated teeth to complete skeletons, is a crucial task for providing new data and support for research and dissemination, both of which are carried out at MUST accompanying traditional and yet fundamental efforts, such as cataloging and restoration, with the digital enhancement of the collection., Journal of Mediterranean Earth Sciences, Vol. 15 (2023): In progress

International audience; Notarchirico (Southern Italy) has yielded the earliest evidence of Acheulean settlement in Italy and four older occupation levels have recently been unearthed, including one with bifaces, extending the roots of the Acheulean in Italy even further back in time. New 40Ar/39Ar on tephras and ESR dates on bleached quartz securely and accurately place these occupations between 695 and 670 ka (MIS 17), penecontemporaneous with the Moulin-Quignon and la Noira sites (France). These new data demonstrate a very rapid expansion of shared traditions over Western Europe during a period of highly variable climatic conditions, including interglacial and glacial episodes, between 670 and 650 (i.e., MIS17/MIS16 transition). The diversity of tools and activities observed in these three sites shows that Western Europe was populated by adaptable hominins during this time. These conclusions question the existence of refuge areas during intense glacial stages and raise questions concerning understudied migration pathways, such as the Sicilian route.

Several terrestrial plant fossils found in the late Cenozoic of Europe belong to thermophilous genera or infrageneric taxa which do not grow in this continent today, and are usually called “exotic elements”. Within this large group we singled out three more precisely defined categories based on the hypothesis that the change of geographic distribution between the late Cenozoic and the present is the result of deterministic extinctions caused by climate change. Among the taxa shared by the modern East Asian and the Plio–Pleistocene European flora, the “humid thermophilous taxa of East Asian affinity” (HUTEA) represent the central category in our study. These were traditionally considered “Pliocene” elements in Europe. In our analysis of 13 reliably dated Italian assemblages the percentage of species belonging to the HUTEA category was found to be higher in Pliocene sites, and very low to null in Pleistocene ones. Also early Pleistocene assemblages across all of Europe did not contain any HUTEA, apart from Eucommia, and Symplocos sect. Lodhra in the refugial area of the Colchis. Our analysis of fruit and seed assemblages in the San Lazzaro section (Umbria, central Italy), recently assigned to the early Pleistocene, provided contrasting evidence, which required a reconsideration of the stratigraphic and palaeontological context of another well known site in central Italy, Cava Toppetti II. Using vertebrate and continental mollusc biochronology the early Pleistocene age of this section was confirmed and its palaeontological records were compared with other assemblages in central Italy and Europe. We show that in central Italy at least three HUTEA species (Sinomenium cantalense, Symplocos casparyi, Toddalia rhenana) persisted after the Pliocene/Pleistocene boundary. We conclude that central-southern Italy offered a refugial niche that was warm and wet enough to assure the longer survival of some HUTEA, in contrast to central Europe.

During the Plio-Pleistocene the Barbary macaque, Macaca sylvanus Linnaeus, 1758 was widely distributed throughout Europe and North Africa (Szalay and Delson, 1979; Delson, 1980; Rook et al., 2001), and it became extinct in Europe during the Late Pleistocene (Elton and O’Regan, 2014). Nowadays this primate is still present in North Africa and a small population has been reintroduced at Gibraltar (Modolo et al., 2005). The taxonomy of the Plio-Pleistocene European macaques is still debated but many authors agree in considering all the fossils as belonging to the M. sylvanus lineage, while the Pleistocene endemic M. majori Azzaroli, 1946 from Sardinia (Italy) has been considered a distinct valid species (Rook and O’Higgins, 2005). The occurrence of this species is documented from Late Pliocene to Late Pleistocene sites located in Northern and Central Italy. Here we describe unpublished dentognathic remains of Macaca sylvanus from the Middle Pleistocene site of Quecchia Quarry (Botticino, Brescia, North Italy).

A natural brain endocast from the Late Pleistocene site of Ingarano (Apulia, Southern Italy) has been investigated in detail using CT scanning, image processing techniques and Geometric Morphometrics. Our analyses provide relevant information about the taxonomy and taphonomy of the specimen. The external morphology of the endocast was compared to those of the brains of living felids. This combination of techniques is commonly used in palaeoneurology for neuroanatomical and behavioural inferences and enables us to classify the fossil as the first reported natural brain endocast of a Late Pleistocene lynx. In addition, the investigation structure of the internal strctures of the natural endocast aloud us to reconstruct its taphonomic history. Download the complete issue.

The fossils of large felids collected, in the so called "Brecce di Soave", by Angelo Pasa during the first half of XX century and stored at Museo di Storia Naturale di Verona are revised. Pasa referred these fossils to different taxa such as Panthera pardus, Panthera leo spelaea, Panthera sp. coming from different localities near Soave: Viatelle, Monte Zoppega, Sentiero, Castello, Monte Tenda. The term "Brecce di Soave" is used to define a karst filling deposits occurring on the Eocene limestones exposed near the village of Soave (Verona, NE Italy). The Brecce di Soave chronology is not homogeneous and includes different Pleistocene phases. The sites located in the Soave area can be referred at least to 2 different depositional phases: 1) around 1 Ma, as suggested by the occurrence of Mimomys, Allophaiomys, Beremendia, etc.; 2) around 0.5 Ma, characterized by the presence of Arvicola, Microtus (Terricola), Chionomys etc. Most of the fossils can be classified as Felidae indet. because of their fragmentary condition. All the other more complete remains can be referred to Panthera cf. P. fossilis with the exception of a partial M1 which has to be ascribed to Homotherium latidens (Viatelle) and a partial P4 referable to Canis cf. C. mosbachensis., Rivista italiana di Paleontologia e Stratigrafia, Vol 118, No 1

In questo lavoro viene presentata la guida geologica all’escursione organizzata per la IX Edizione delle Giornate di Paleontologia della Società Paleontologica Italiana tenuta a S.Marco in Lamis e Apricena (FG) tra il 28 e il 31 Maggio 2009. L’escursione sul terreno, della durata di due giorni, intende presentare alcune delle innumerevoli peculiarità stratigrafiche e paleontologiche del Gargano, una delle regioni con la più ricca, completa e meglio studiata testimonianza dell’evoluzione geologica mesozoica, cenozoica e quaternaria dell’intera area mediterranea. Il primo giorno ha per oggetto la descrizione degli elementi stratigrafici e paleontologici salienti del Cretacico inferiore (Aptiano-Albiano) e dell’Eocene affioranti nella porzione meridionale del Promontorio del Gargano a sud della faglia di Mattinata. Il secondo giorno è dedicato alla studio delle successioni del Plio-Pleistocene affioranti nell’area del complesso estrattivo di Apricena-Lesina-Poggio Imperiale (Gargano NO) e alle ricche associazioni fossilifere a vertebrati in esse contenute. Parole chiave: Giornate di Paleontologia, Gargano