Progress in faunal correlation of Late Cenozoic fluvial sequences 2000-4: the report of the IGCP 449 biostratigraphy subgroup b ffi d D.e. Schrevea, * , D.H. Keen , , N. Limondin-LozouetC, P. Auguste , Juan I. Santistebane, f i M. Ubilla , A. Matoshkog, D.R. Bridgland\ R. Westaway a Department of Geography,Royal Holloway University of London,Egham, Surrey TW20 OEX, UK b lnstitute of Archaeology & Antiquity,The University of Birminyham,Edybaston, Birminyham B15 2TT, UK CLaboratoire de Geographie Physique, UMR CNRS 859, 1 Place Aristide Briand,92195 Meudon cedex,France d UMR 8014 CNRS,Laboratoire de Paieontologie et Paieogeographie du Paieozoi'que, Universite des Sciences et Technologies de Lille 1, F-59655 Villeneuve d'Ascq Cedex,France CDepartamento Estratigrajla,Facultad Ciencias Geo16gicas, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Calle Jose Antonio Novais 2,28040 Madrid,Spain f paleontologia,Ingepa, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de la Repuhlica,Igua 4225,11400 Montevideo, Uruguay gInstituteof' Geoyraphy, National Academyof' Sciences of Ukraine, 44 Volodymyrska Street,01034 Kiev, Ukraine h Geography Department,Durham University,Durham DH1 3LE, UK i Facultyof'Mathematics and Computinq,The Open University, Ehlon House, Gos/imh,Newcastle upon Tyne NE3 3PW, UK Abstract Vertebrate and invertebrate faunal biostratigraphy is a well-tested method for establishing relative chronologies for fluviatile sequences that has proved useful in many parts of the world, The robust bones and teeth of large mammals are commonly found in fluviatile deposits, whereas small vertebrates can be readily recovered through systematic sieving of calcareous sediments, as can molluscs, the other major faunal group that has been used for biostratigraphical analysis of fluvial seq uences, Because of their rapid and quantifiable rates of evolution, extinction, body mass change and dispersal during the Late Cenozoic, mammals are especially useful for ordering the fragmentary terrestrial sequence of interglacials and glacials, and proposing correlation with the global marine climatostratigraphic record. Other groups (e.g. reptiles and amphibians, ostracods) are as yet only in the initial stages of development as a dating tool, whereas some (e.g. fish, birds) still require substantial development in order to fully explore their utility. As part of IGCP 449, vertebrate and molluscan assemblages have made important contributions to datasets from a number of areas, notably northern France, central Germany, the Czech Republic and the Ukraine. Further south, mammalian assemblages have proved useful in separating discrete periods of climatic change in Iberia and Syria. At greater distances from the core area of fluvial biostratigraphical archives, significant contributions have come from South America (Uruguay River), South Africa (Vaal) and Australia (Riverine Plain and Lake Eyre drainage basin). 1. Introduction Kennard, 1924; Zeuner, 1945, 1946; Pike and Godwin, 1953; Sutcliffe, 1964; Kerney, 1971; Kahlke, 1975). There is a long tradition of studying fossils found in A subgroup of IGCP participants undertaking this type fluvial deposits and of using these fossil assemblages for of research was formed at the inaugural meeting in Prague relative dating (e.g. Kennard and Woodward, 1897; (April 2001) and has compiled data on faunal assemblages from fluvial sequences in different parts of the world. Many 441784443569; + 441784472836. *Corrcsponding author. Tcl.: + fax: different types of fossils can be found in fluvial sequences, : D 1 (D.e. E-mail addresses anielle.Schreve@rhu .ac.uk Schreve), from tree trunks and large animal bones in coarse gravels [email protected] (N. Limondin-Lozouel), to pollen and other microfossils in fine-grained sediments. [email protected] (P. Auguste), [email protected] (M. Ubilla), [email protected] (A. Maloshko). Although palynological studies have been of great im­ portance since the first interglacials were defined (e.g. West, 1956, 1957, 1980; Zagwijn, 1973; Turner, 1975) the rivers such as the Neckar, Ilm and Wipper, often within resolution of pollen sequences in fluvial sequences is rarely subaerial travertines interbedded with the fluvial sediments sufficient for reliable age control (cf. Turner, 1985; (Bridgland et aI., 2004; see Figs. 1 and 2). Again, fluvial Thomas, 2001), a problem that led to much historical deposits on non-calcareous crystalline rocks, sand(stone)s controversy between palaeobotanists and other palaeontol­ and clays are generally lacking in useful fossils. The IGCP ogists about the number and identity of interglacials in NW project has facilitated comparison of such records over Europe (cf. Sutcliffe, 1964, 1975; Shotton, 1983; Bowen wide areas, as will be demonstrated in this paper, which et aI., 1989; Bridgland, 1994; Gibbard, 1994; Preece, 1995a, seeks to review and compare the more significant faunal 1999; Schreve, 2001a). In essence, those working with records examined. animal fossils, particularly molluscs and mammals, were In the core area of IGCP 449, NW and Central Europe, able to distinguish a greater number of interglacials and the use of mammals and molluscs for biostratigraphy is interstadials within the Middle and Late Pleistocene than well established (e.g. Lozek, 1964a, b; Stuart, 1982; the palynologists. With increasingly convincing correlation Horacek and Lozek, 1988; Horacek, 1990; Keen, 1990; between the marine oxygen isotope record and terrestrial Kolfschoten, 1990, 2000; Kovanda et aI., 1995; Preece, sequences such as those in river valleys, and supported by 1995a, 1999; Meijer and Preece, 2000), with mammalian geochronological methods wherever possible, it is the assemblages proving particularly useful for distinguishing version of the Quaternary based on mammals and molluscs the four mam post-Elsterian/Anglian interglacials that has become for many the status quo (cf. Bowen et aI., (Schreve, 2001a; Bridgland and Schreve, 2001, 2004; 1989; Bowen, 1999; Schreve, 2001a, b; Bridgland and Schreve and Bridgland, 2002; Bridgland et aI., 2004). In Maddy, 2002). pre-Elsterian contexts, a combination of mammalian and Both vertebrate and molluscan fo ssils are better pre­ molluscan signatures has been used to unravel the served in areas of calcareous ground water, which generally complexity of short-lived wann events within the Cromer­ coincide with limestone bedrock outcrops. Thus, fluvial ian Complex (Kolfschoten and Turner, 1996; Preece deposits overlying the Chalk of NW Europe are often and Parfitt, 2000; Stuart and Lister, 2001). Distinctive highly fossiliferous, whereas those in adj acent areas over­ taxa have also proved useful in distinguishing certain lying non-calcareous Tertiary sands and clays are largely episodes, for example the presence in MIS 11 of Retinella barren. Similarly, the Permian Muschelkalk outcrops in (Lyrodiscus) elephantium, an extinct member of the Central Germany coincide with abundant preservation of Zonitidae belonging to a genus today restricted to the molluscan and vertebrate fo ssils in the fluvial terraces of Canary Islands (Rousseau, 1992; Rousseau et aI., 1992; PURFLEET MAZ Brown bear (Ursus arctos) JOINT MITNOR CAVE MAZ 60 Water shrew (Neomys browni) (TRAFALGAR SQUARE) Spotted hyaena (Crocuta crocuta) Hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius) Dartford Swa ns=mbe Fallow deer (Dama dama ssp. indet.) Fallow deer (Dama dama) Heath deposits Humans (artefacts) Absence of horse (Equus ferus) gravel Absence of humans 40 Boyn Hill I Ors ett Heath Gra vel o Aveley West ThulTock '. :"'-'i,'j I :Q . Lynch Hill I deposits Corbets Tey Gravel Kempton Pade I 20 Hornchurch East Tilbury till Marshes Gravel Modem § River I Alluvium Purfleet I Gra ys 9 . deposits : 0 ;::-� o . ; . ...-.� , 5e .. Buried t': . ( Channel SWANSCOMBE MAZ SANDY LANE MAZ Trafalgar Square deposits Cave bear (Ursus spelaeus) Mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) Shepperton (projected downstream) Large fallow deer (Dama dama clactoniana) Horse (Equus ferus) Gravel -20 Small mole (Talpa minor) Large form of northern vole Giant beaver (Trogontherium curieri) (Microtus oeconomus) PONDS FARM MAZ Pine vole (Microtus subterraneus) Humans (Levallois artefacts) Horse (Equus fe rus) Rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) White.toothed shrew (Crocidura sp,) Humans (artefacts) Humans (artefacts) - 4o L----==========--------����� ===�-� f"ii\Numbers indicate the oxygen isotope stages futerglacial deposits Coki-climate gravels � to whichthese have been attributed D [s:g.:�j Fig. 1. Idealised transverse section through the Lower Thames terrace sequence, east of London (after Bridgland, 1994). Selected details of mammalian assemblage zones are indicated (modified from Bridgland and Schreve, 2001). MAZ = Mammal Assemblage-Zone. Im Gravels 0 Travertines Varved clay and silt •. "" . and debris D I1Q. l!i Colluviatloess slope 55·60rn terrace Elsterian glacial f'14\ Boulder clay loess ����,,;,,�ace \.'..V Bilzingsleben 11 Ursus spe/a9us [;J CIJ Theodoxus d. clactoniana Sandy gravels Sins and loams 30 45rn terrace Dama. serratiliniformis Stephanorllinus kirchbergansis D EJ fauna Stephanorllinus hemifoechus ANicola ferrestris cantiana Trogonfherium cuvieri 20 . � 35m�;y��g�;l5;�--"""'=='---------' E 10 terrace SaalianCV glacial Cycle 1 terrace 6> 27rn terrace Cycle 2 22m terrace Cycle 3 @ tBm terrace River Cycle 4 Wipper (j) Bm terrace Cycle 5 3m terrace @ Cycle 6 Fig. 2. Transverse section through the terrace sequence of the River Wipper in a single meander core at Bilzingsleben, Thuringia (the uppennost two