Marco Cherin

New footprints from Laetoli (Tanzania) provide evidence for marked body size variation in early hominins

Laetoli is a well-known palaeontological locality in northern Tanzania whose outstanding record includes the earliest hominin footprints in the world (3.66 million years old), discovered in 1978 at Site G and attributed to Australopithecus afarensis. Here, we report hominin tracks unearthed in the new Site S at Laetoli and referred to two bipedal individuals (S1 and S2) moving on the same palaeosurface and in the same direction as the three hominins documented at Site G. The stature estimates for S1 greatly exceed those previously reconstructed for Au. afarensis from both skeletal material and footprint data. In combination with a comparative reappraisal of the Site G footprints, the evidence collected here embodies very important additions to the Pliocene record of hominin behaviour and morphology. Our results are consistent with considerable body size variation and, probably, degree of sexual dimorphism within a single species of bipedal hominins as early as 3.66 million years ago. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.19568.001

First report of Lutra simplicidens (Carnivora, Mustelidae, Lutrinae) in the Early Pleistocene of the Upper Valdarno (Italy) and the origin of European otters

Fossil Lutrinae are very rare in the Plio-Pleistocene fossil record. We report here a right mandible of an otter from the Early Pleistocene of the Upper Valdarno Basin (Italy) kept in the collections of the Natural History Museum of London. The specimen, recovered in the XIX century, remained undescribed until today. Morphologic and morphometric characters of the mandible allow us to refer it to Lutra simplicidens Thenius, 1965, a fossil otter recorded in Europe in the late Early to Middle Pleistocene, thus representing the oldest report of this species. This finding adds a new interesting taxon to the late Villafranchian faunal assemblage of the Upper Valdarno and reinforces the hypothesis of an African origin of L. simplicidens , because of its affinities with L. fatimazohrae Geraads, 1997 from Morocco.

New Bovid Remains from the Early Pleistocene of Umbria (Italy) and a Reappraisal of Leptobos merlai

The extinct bovid Leptobos is one of the most characteristic elements of Eurasian faunal assemblages during most of the Villafranchian Land Mammal Age (i.e., from the late Pliocene to most of the early Pleistocene). Several species of this genus have been established since the end of XIX Century, but their taxonomic status and phylogenetic relationships remain unclear due to the fact that most of them are described on the basis of scanty material. European species are divided into two groups or lineages. The first includes L. stenometopon, L. merlai, and the poorly known L. furtivus, the second L. etruscus and L. vallisarni. While the last two species are well documented in the Italian early Pleistocene fossil record, very little is known on the L. stenometopon-merlai-furtivus group and especially on L. merlai, whose richest sample is from the French locality of Saint Vallier. Here, we describe new material of L. merlai from the early late Villafranchian of Umbria (central Italy), including a nearly complete female cranium and a male neurocranium with horn cores. These remains constitute the best-preserved and complete sample of L. merlai in the Italian Peninsula and bring new consistency to the fossil record of this species. In addition, they serve to confirm the extension of the spatial distribution of L. merlai to the south and of the chronological distribution of this taxon from the middle to the early late Villafranchian. Finally, we offer critical remarks on some not well defined Leptobos species.

Synchrotron radiation reveals the identity of the large felid from Monte Argentario (Early Pleistocene, Italy)

We describe here a partial skull with associated mandible of a large felid from Monte Argentario, Italy (Early Pleistocene; ~1.5 million years). Propagation x-ray phase-contrast synchrotron microtomography of the specimen, still partially embedded in the rock matrix, allows ascribing it reliably to Acinonyx pardinensis, one of the most intriguing extinct carnivorans of the Old World Plio-Pleistocene. The analysis of images and 3D models obtained through synchrotron microtomography – here applied for the first time on a Plio-Pleistocene carnivoran – reveals a mosaic of cheetah-like and Panthera-like features, with the latter justifying previous attributions of the fossil to the extinct Eurasian jaguar Panthera gombaszoegensis. Similarly, we reassign to A. pardinensis some other Italian materials previously referred to P. gombaszoegensis (sites of Pietrafitta and Ellera di Corciano). The recognition of Panthera-like characters in A. pardinensis leads to reconsidering the ecological role of this species, whose hunting strategy was likely to be different from those of the living cheetah. Furthermore, we hypothesise that the high intraspecific variation in body size in A. pardinensis can be the result of sexual dimorphism, as observed today in all large-sized felids.

The early Pleistocene whale-fall community of Bargiano (Umbria, Central Italy): Paleoecological insights from benthic foraminifera and brachyuran crabs

New insights into communities of benthic foraminifera and decapods, associated with whale-fall events (WFE) in a relatively shallow sea environment, are reported here for the first time from the early Pleistocene of Bargiano (southwestern Umbria, Italy). The inferred paleodepth of these WFEs is not greater than 100−150 m and, on the basis of more general stratigraphic data, took place over an estimated period of about 50,000 years. The foraminifera assemblages associated with these WFEs are low in number of planktonic and benthic taxa, and six benthic species dominate: the shallow infaunal species Bigenerina nodosaria, Bannerella gibbosa, Marginulinopsis costata, and Vaginulina cf. V. striatissima, along with the epifaunal species Lenticulina calcar and Siphotextularia concava. Because these opportunistic species respond to shortterm favorable conditions by increasing in number and maintaining stable populations, the presence of high numbers of individuals of these species in association with three recognized WFEs provides evidence that a nutrient-rich environment favored their proliferation. The occurrence of previously unreported benthic foraminifera taxa (across the three WFEs), along with the presence of the crab species Albaidaplax ispalensis (Goneplacidae) and Chlinocephalus demissifrons (Euryplacidae) (in at least one WFE), offer new insights into shallow sea whale-fall fossil communities. Angela Baldanza (corresponding author), Department of Physics and Geology, University of Perugia, Via A. Pascoli ‒ I-06123 Perugia, Italy, angela.baldanza@unipg.it Roberto Bizzarri, Department of Physics and Geology, University of Perugia, Via A. Pascoli ‒ I-06123 Perugia, Italy, roberto.bizzarri@libero.it Federico Famiani, Paleontological Museum Mount Subasio Regional Park, Loc. Cà Piombino I06081Assisi, Perugia, Italy. federico.famiani@gmail.com Alessandro Garassino, Natural History Museum, Paleontology Department, Corso Venezia 55 I-20121 Milan, Italy. alegarassino@gmail.com Baldanza, Angela, Bizzarri, Roberto, Famiani, Federico, Garassino, Alessandro, Pasini, Giovanni, Cherin, Marco, and Rosatini, Francesco. 2018. The early Pleistocene whale-fall community of Bargiano (Umbria, Central Italy): Paleoecological insights from benthic foraminifera and brachyuran crabs. Palaeontologia Electronica 21.1.11A 1-27. https://doi.org/10.26879/779 palaeo-electronica.org/content/2018/2148-whale-fall-paleo-community Copyright: April 2018 Paleontology Society. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0), which permits users to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format, provided it is not used for commercial purposes and the original author and source are credited, with indications if any changes are made. creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ BALDANZA ET AL.: WHALE-FALL PALEO-COMMUNITY Giovanni Pasini, Via Alessandro Volta 16 I-22070 Appiano Gentile (Como), Italy. juanaldopasini@tiscali.it Marco Cherin, Department of Physics and Geology, University of Perugia, Via A. Pascoli ‒ I-06123 Perugia, Italy, marco.cherin@unipg.it Francesco Rosatini, Via Strada di San Giacomo 1/D I-06132 Fontignano (Perugia), Italy. f.rosatini@gmail.com