Claudio Berto

A human deciduous tooth and new 40Ar/39Ar dating results from the Middle Pleistocene archaeological site of Isernia La pineta, southern Italy

Isernia La Pineta (south-central Italy, Molise) is one of the most important archaeological localities of the Middle Pleistocene in Western Europe. It is an extensive open-air site with abundant lithic industry and faunal remains distributed across four stratified archaeosurfaces that have been found in two sectors of the excavation (3c, 3a, 3s10 in sect. I; 3a in sect. II). The prehistoric attendance was close to a wet environment, with a series of small waterfalls and lakes associated to calcareous tufa deposits. An isolated human deciduous incisor (labelled IS42) was discovered in 2014 within the archaeological level 3 coll (overlying layer 3a) that, according to new 40Ar/39Ar measurements, is dated to about 583–561 ka, i.e. to the end of marine isotope stage (MIS) 15. Thus, the tooth is currently the oldest human fossil specimen in Italy; it is an important addition to the scanty European fossil record of the Middle Pleistocene, being associated with a lithic assemblage of local raw materials (flint and limestone) characterized by the absence of handaxes and reduction strategies primarily aimed at the production of small/medium-sized flakes. The faunal assemblage is dominated by ungulates often bearing cut marks. Combining chronology with the archaeological evidence, Isernia La Pineta exhibits a delay in the appearance of handaxes with respect to other European Palaeolithic sites of the Middle Pleistocene. Interestingly, this observation matches the persistence of archaic morphological features shown by the human calvarium from the Middle Pleistocene site of Ceprano, not far from Isernia (south-central Italy, Latium). In this perspective, our analysis is aimed to evaluate morphological features occurring in IS42.

First record of Pelobates syriacus (Anura, Amphibia) in the early Pleistocene of Italy

Spadefoot toads (Pelobatidae, Anura) are rare in the Italian fossil record, being previously recorded only in the late Pliocene of Arondelli (Piedmont Region, northwestern Italy) and in the early Pleistocene of Pirro Nord P21 (Apulia, southeastern Italy). Here we describe for the first time abundant fossil remains of Pelobates syriacus from the lower Pleistocene fissure of Pirro Nord P13 (Apulia, southeastern Italy). These fossils shed new light on the palaeobiogeographical history of Pelobates in the Apennine Peninsula and are the first fossil evidence in Italy for P. syriacus, which currently lives in the southeastern Balkan Peninsula, Caucasus and the Middle East. This extralimital Italian occurrence suggests that P. syriacus has good dispersal abilities, when favourable conditions exist. Dispersal routes to reach the Apennine Peninsula during the early Pleistocene may have been favoured by a low level of the Adriatic Sea during a cold interval, furnishing a new habitat suitable for P. syriacus.

The genus Iberomys (CHALINE, 1972) (Rodentia, Arvicolinae, Mammalia) in the Pleistocene of Italy

The occurrence of the genus Iberomys is testified in Italy and the Iberian Peninsula from the Early Pleistocene on. The genus comprises two extinct voles: I. huescarensis from the Early Pleistocene to the early Middle Pleistocene and I. brecciensis (=mediterraneus) from the Middle to the early Late Pleistocene. I. cabrerae, has been present in Spain from the early Late Pleistocene, enduring right through to today. The fossil record of Iberomys in Italy is poor in comparison with those in the Iberian Peninsula and southern France. I. huescarensis has been identified in Italy at the Rifreddo and Spessa sites, while I. brecciensis has been recognized at Zoppega 2, Montagnola Senese II, Isernia, Valdemino, Polledrara di Cecanibbio and Paglicci. A revision of the specimens of the genus Iberomys in Italy and a comparison with the fossil records of southern France and the Iberian Peninsula show that the origin of the Early Pleistocene species (I. huescarensis) is clearly in the Iberian Peninsula, where the species having evolved from ancient populations of Allophaiomys nutiensis. The origin of the species I. brecciensis is still unknown. It seems to appear at the same time in Italy and in the Iberian Peninsula, and its extinction occurred during the late Middle Pleistocene-early Late Pleistocene in Italy, France and Iberia simultaneously.