B07 Copertina R OK C August 20-28,2004 Florence -Italy
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Volume n° 1 - from PR01 to B15 32nd INTERNATIONAL GEOLOGICAL CONGRESS QUATERNARY EUSTATIC FLUCTUATIONS AND BIOCHRONOLOGY OF VERTEBRATE-BEARING DEPOSITS CORRELATED WITH MARINE TERRACES IN SICILY Leader: L. Bonfi glio Associate Leaders: V. Agnesi, F. Masini, C. Di Maggio Field Trip Guide Book - B07 Field Trip Florence - Italy August 20-28, 2004 Pre-Congress B07 B07_copertina_R_OK C 28-05-2004, 19:11:33 The scientific content of this guide is under the total responsibility of the Authors Published by: APAT – Italian Agency for the Environmental Protection and Technical Services - Via Vitaliano Brancati, 48 - 00144 Roma - Italy Series Editors: Luca Guerrieri, Irene Rischia and Leonello Serva (APAT, Roma) English Desk-copy Editors: Paul Mazza (Università di Firenze), Jessica Ann Thonn (Università di Firenze), Nathalie Marléne Adams (Università di Firenze), Miriam Friedman (Università di Firenze), Kate Eadie (Freelance indipendent professional) Field Trip Committee: Leonello Serva (APAT, Roma), Alessandro Michetti (Università dell’Insubria, Como), Giulio Pavia (Università di Torino), Raffaele Pignone (Servizio Geologico Regione Emilia-Romagna, Bologna) and Riccardo Polino (CNR, Torino) Acknowledgments: The 32nd IGC Organizing Committee is grateful to Roberto Pompili and Elisa Brustia (APAT, Roma) for their collaboration in editing. Graphic project: Full snc - Firenze Layout and press: Lito Terrazzi srl - Firenze B07_copertina_R_OK D 20-05-2004, 11:43:53 Volume n° 1 - from PR01 to B15 32nd INTERNATIONAL GEOLOGICAL CONGRESS QUATERNARY EUSTATIC FLUCTUATIONS AND BIOCHRONOLOGY OF VERTEBRATE-BEARING DEPOSITS CORRELATED WITH MARINE TERRACES IN SICILY AUTHORS: V. Agnesi1, L. Bonfi glio2, C. Ciurcina3, C. Conoscenti1, C. Di Maggio1, C. Di Patti1, G. Mangano2, F. Masini1, M. Pavia4, D. Petruso1, U. Spigo5 1Università di Palermo - Italy 2Università di Messina - Italy 3Museo “Paolo Orsi”, Siracusa - Italy 4Università di Torino - Italy 5Sopraintendenza Archeologica, Catania - Italy Florence - Italy August 20-28, 2004 Pre-Congress B07 B07_R_OK A 20-05-2004, 11:49:22 Front Cover: In the square, thePizzo Castellaro carbonatic massif cut by marine terraces at Acquedolci. The painting shows a reconstruction of the landscape about 200.000 years ago. B07_R_OK B 20-05-2004, 11:49:24 QUATERNARY EUSTATIC FLUCTUATIONS AND BIOCHRONOLOGY OF VERTEBRATE-BEARING DEPOSITS CORRELATED WITH MARINE TERRACES IN SICILY B07 Leader: L. Bonfi glio Associate Leaders: V. Agnesi, F. Masini, C. Di Maggio Itinerary for Excursion B07 Introduction DAY 1 Geological framework of Sicily and the Pleistocene The B07 Tour will meet at Catania Airport at 10: land vertebrate-bearing deposits 00 am on Monday 16th August. The meeting point L. Bonfi glio is in the “Arrivals” hall (look out for people holding The remains of Pleistocene land vertebrates in Sicily, up “B07 Excursion” signs; they will direct you to a although traditionally associated with caves, in fact bus). We will leave for Siracuse, visiting the “Paolo occur in a variety of different environments, which Orsi” Archaeological Museum. Lunch at Siracuse refl ect the diverse palaeogeographic conditions of before going on to Spinagallo Cave. Overnight stay the early, middle and late Pleistocene. The uneven at Taormina. distribution of fossil sites in different parts of the DAY 2 island is also determined by the associated diversity Full day excursion to Taormina and Acquedolci - S. of lithologies. Teodoro cave. Overnight stay at Palermo. Sicily consists essentially of three structural units, DAY 3 which have come to occupy their current position Full day excursion to Monte Pellegrino and Alcamo. as a result of the convergent tectonics accompanying Overnight stay at San Vito Lo Capo. the collision between the European and African DAY 4 plates in the period from the early Miocene to the Full day excursion to the neighbourhood of San Vito early Pliocene (Catalano and D’Argenio 1982). Of Lo Capo. In the afternoon transfer by bus to Palermo the three structural units, the Hyblean carbonate Airport. plateau, which acted as a foreland region, occupies Sicily is the largest island in the Mediterranean, the southeast of the island; the central and the very well known all over the world for its beautiful central western regions consist mainly of terrigenous landscapes, its very complex geological framework sediments, while to the North there is a succession of and its huge palaeontological heritage, preserved in the tectonic units with varying palaeogeographic settings numerous cave deposits. and rock associations, although carbonate deposits Five Pleistocene vertebrate complexes have recently are prevalent in the western area (Mountains of been recognized on the island, differing as to Palermo) while metamorphic rocks and terrigenous composition and degree of endemism. Each complex sediments predominate in the eastern zone (Nebrodi corresponds to different dispersal events, of various and Peloritani mountains). provenance (African and/or European), and has been The establishment of an extensional tectonic regime controlled by fi ltering barriers of varying intensities. affecting Sicily from the early Pliocene onward Variation in palaeogeography caused by tectonics and resulted in the collapse of peripheral zones of the glacial and eustatic marine cycles have controlled the island and led to the creation of a series of deep processes and timing of Middle Pleistocene and Late marine basins occupying large areas around and Pleistocene vertebrate faunal dispersion in Sicily, between the two emerged blocks (North and South through temporary connections via the Straits of eastern areas, respectively) (Figure 1.1). (Bonfi glio Messina and the Catanzaro isthmus (Southern Calabria). and Piperno 1996). A continental limnic succession The fi eld trip will illustrate the palaeontological at Comiso made up of paleosols, lacustrine and and geomorphological evidence of variations in the aeolian deposits, constitutes the evidence of the fi rst palaeogeography of Sicily during the Pleistocene. At connection of the Hyblean Plateau with the northern Acquedolci (North Eastern Sicily), where the very large sector of Sicily in the early Middle Pleistocene. From S. Teodoro cave is also located, thousands of remains of the beginning of the Middle Pleistocene onward, the PR01 to B15 n° 1 - from Volume the endemic hippo Hippopotamus pentlandi, associated evolution of Sicily was characterised by an uplifting with a few remains of other taxa, are displayed in the tendency which led, in the late middle Pleistocene, to excavation trenches within a lacustrine deposit. Late the emersion of the previous deep marine basins and to Pleistocene deposits will also be seen in the excavation the establishment of a palaeogeography very similar to trenchs in the S. Teodoro cave. the present one. The island almost reached its present Quaternary terraces in North Eastern and Western extension, being also bordered by a crown of coastal Sicily constitute very spectacular landscapes. plains (Bonfi glio et al. 2002). In the late Pleistocene 3 - B07 B07_R_OK 3 20-05-2004, 11:53:01 Leader: L. Bonfi glio B07 Palermo hills, and at 104 metres in the Peloritani (Di Grande and Raimondo 1984; Bonfi glio and Violanti 1984). From the late Middle Pleistocene onward, the establishment of an intermittent fi lter barrier in the area of the Messina Straits probably controlled the processes and timing of the Late Middle Pleistocene- Late Glacial vertebrate faunal dispersion in Sicily. Pleistocene land vertebrates of Sicily L. Bonfi glio, G. Mangano, F. Masini, M. Pavia, D. Petruso The rich palaeontological heritage of Pleistocene land vertebrates in Sicily indicates that different faunal Figure 1.1 - Geographic outline of Sicily in the Lower complexes inhabited the island over time. Until 1985, Pleistocene (thick line) and extension of the known most of the known Pleistocene vertebrate remains of Eutyrrhenian shorelines (broken line). (From Bonfi glio Sicily came from cave deposits and little was known and Piperno 1996, modifi ed) about the palaeoenvironmental conditions of the the interaction of neotectonic with eustatic marine vertebrate-bearing deposits. Most of the older studies cycles generated a series of marine terraces covered on Quaternary vertebrates in Sicily have focused by littoral deposits or coastal plains, while creating a on evolutionary and taxonomic aspects (Vaufrey series of caves following ancient cliff-lines in areas 1929; Accordi and Colacicchi 1962; Ambrosetti with a limestone basement. The extent of uplift varied 1968; Brugal 1987) with the aim of identifying the in the different areas, as indicated by the maximum continental species from which the Sicilian ones elevations of Eutyrrhenian terrace deposits with derived. Strombus bubonius, found at about 30 metres above Chronological arrangements of the various the present sea level in the Hyblean Plateau and in the Pleistocene mammal assemblages of Sicily were Volume n° 1 - from PR01 to B15 n° 1 - from Volume Figure 2.1 - Location of the Pleistocene vertebrate-bearing deposits correlated with marine deposits in Sicily. (From Bonfi glio et al. 2003) B07 - B07_R_OK 4 20-05-2004, 11:53:04 QUATERNARY EUSTATIC FLUCTUATIONS AND BIOCHRONOLOGY OF VERTEBRATE-BEARING DEPOSITS CORRELATED WITH MARINE TERRACES IN SICILY B07 Monte Pellegrino F.C. Elephas falconeri F.C. Elephas mnaidriensis F.C. Grotta S. Teodoro - Pianetti F.C. Castello F.C. Mustelercta arzilla Vulpes sp. Panthera leo Crocuta crocuta cf. spelaea Canis lupus Lutra trinacriae Crocuta