Influence of the climatic-environmental variations on the vole Microtus (Tyrrhenicola) Henseli at the late pleistocene-Holocene transition

Abstract

Morphometry and enemel microstructural analyses performed on the first lower molar (ml) of the endemic fossil vole Microtus (Tyrrhenicola) henseli from Pleistocene and Holocene deposits of Sardinia and Corsica highlight significant evolutionary trends in this insular vole. The studied populations are distinguished into two groups characterized by a different degree of evolution. It resulted that marked morphological changes occurred during the latest Pleistocene, whereas a marked increase in the teeth size, not associated with any other important morphological change, occurred at the transition from the late Pleistocene to Holocene populations. Size changes observed in Holocene populations from Neolithic deposits can more likely be referred to the environmental variations produced by the diffusion of the Neolithic Culture in the two islands.